Bath Half Marathon postponed for 4th time
BBCThe Bath Half Marathon has been postponed for a fourth time.
Organisers said the annual event would now be held on 16 October after staff absences, loss of suppliers and the Cleveland Bridge closure meant it could not be held on 29 May as planned.
It was originally due to be held on 13 March 2021.
The council said it was surprised to learn of the cancellation and invited organisations wishing to hold a similar event on 29 May to get in touch.
In a statement, the organisers said despite their best efforts, the cumulative impact on its small team from Covid and planned engineering works to the bridge meant it had reluctantly decided to postpone the event until autumn.
"After two years of dealing with the impact of the pandemic this was absolutely not what we wanted to happen.
"We know you've missed the Bath Half and so have we.
"We all want to get 'back to normal' and the Bath Half Marathon is a reminder of so much that is good about the city and the people that live here", the organisers said.
Timeline of postponements
The event has been postponed three times before in the past two years:
- Covid forced the event to be cancelled in March 2021.
- It was rescheduled for September 2021 but organisers moved the date again, this time to March 2022.
- It was then announced in January that the event would be rescheduled to May due to "pressures on the highways network"
The most recent announcement comes two years after the event came under heavy criticism for going ahead just days before the first national lockdown.
'Surprised and disappointed'
Bath and North East Somerset Council said it was "very surprised and disappointed" to hear of the postponement and said the revised date of 16 October had not been agreed with the council - something organisers deny.
"For the sake of complete clarity, there is no reason at all from the council's perspective why this event should not go ahead.
"Having already worked extremely hard to accommodate a change of route, a change of date, a change of start point, all at the organiser's request, to enable this event to go forward.
"Indeed, although it is a big ask, if any other professional organisation wished to run an event on 29 May, we would work with them to see if it is possible," the council said.
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Bath Half organisers Tweeted they "understood" the revised October date had been agreed and had "reached out" to the council for clarification.
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