Racing has returned to Cheltenham, with the November meet having just gone this weekend. We know the punters love the races, but how do people in the local area feel?
“It’s lovely to live in a place where such events are held” one resident close the the course said, “seeing all the people, and the odd celebrity is such an experience.
You can get a group of rowdy people who can spoil the atmosphere, but that’s very rare.”
It seems most of the residents in the area do see the positive side to the races but do have some concerns, another resident said, “My main concern with the races is all the traffic and sometimes road closures. Week day races especially can cause problems, we still have to get to and from work.”
They did see the positive side as well, “But I know how much it does for the local area, so I can put up with it for a couple days.”
The races bring not only a lot of people to Cheltenham, but along with it a lot of infrastructure is needed to withstand the vast amounts of people in the town. Fields transformed into car parks, roads becoming walkways. with the vast amount of litter thats brought in more bins need adding, and for a few poor locals portaloos placed outside their houses.
One resident didn’t envy their neighbours situation, “luckily not myself, but I’ve seen some houses have portaloos outside of them! I couldn’t imagine looking out my window and seeing a line of people wanting to go to the toilet outside, that would annoy me”
Away from the residential side of Cheltenham, one side that has offers nothing to praise to the races is local businesses. With people coming in brings customers and money.
One local business had this to say, “The races are brilliant, seeing the buses and trains bringing people in is what helps this town boom. Yes we can feel overwhelmed at times, but more people is only good for not only my business but every business in our town.”
The November weekend meet saw attendance of 31,000 on Saturday alone which is only a prelim to the attendance that the Gold Cup meet will bring on March 11-14th. Previous years weekend attendance for the Gold Cup have been in excess of 280,000. And with the Jockey Club looking to make tickets cheaper and easier to obtain for all meets, we can expect that attendance to only grow. So locals and business will be bracing themselves for the vast amount of crowds which bring the good and the bad for Cheltenham.
https://www.thejockeyclub.co.uk/cheltenham/events-tickets/the-festival/
31,000 attended Saturdays November meeting here at Cheltenham🤯 @CheltenhamRaces
— Park Life Sport (@ParkLife_Sport) November 18, 2024
Have you attended a meeting that isn't the big Festival in March here at Cheltenhamâť“
There were some standout performers throughout the weekend 🏇👀
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