Swansea's big sporting weekend saw athletes arrive in the city in their thousands on Saturday and Sunday to take part in incredible challenges of swimming, cycling and running to achieve some truly remarkable feats. But whilst it was joy and jubilation for those who took part in the World Triathlon Para Series and the Ironman events, it was misery for some who were trying to negotiate the roads.
Motorists have hit out in their numbers over what has been described as a "poor traffic management system" around Swansea at the weekend which saw a schedule of road closures in place to accommodate the major events. They undoubtedly brought prestige to the city and gave a big boost to the local economy, as thousands packed the streets to cheer on those they knew taking part, and Swansea Council says that the Ironman event alone is estimated to have brought £2.5m to the economy, with many accommodation providers doing excellent business along with many other businesses in the hospitality sector. But for some, it made it impossible for them to get home or to their workplaces without severe delays.
People have reported waiting several hours stuck in gridlock traffic as they looked to negotiate the closures. Footage captured by one motorist's dashcam shows an epic tailback of drivers queued up on their way into the city centre. Monika Okrasinska was caught up in the road closures put in place for the Para Triathlon on Friday. She said: "The queue was standstill and took me one and a half hours to get from Morfa to town on 9am on Friday. Some people still have to get to work and it's not a good idea to close the major roads on busy summer weekends during the school holiday."
READ MORE: People pack the streets of Swansea to cheer on competitors in city's first Ironman 70.3
Another woman told WalesOnline: "It took me 45 minutes to drive from near Swansea.com stadium to Parc Tawe on Saturday morning, a drive that takes me no more than 10 minutes. The traffic over the bridge at Fabian Way was chaos, people weren't able to move when the lights changed it was that busy."
Others also expressed their grievances on social media. One person wrote: "Swansea Council, by all means run the event but I am stuck out of Swansea until gone 7pm with two kids unable to access my house which means sleeping at my mothers in Bridgend tonight. Four and a half hours stuck going nowhere and police wouldn’t let me go to my house it's wrong."
A taxi driver wrote: "Had to pick customers up at the Premier Inn on Langdon Road but couldn't get to them. The poor kid and her mum were super stressed due to the daughter being in a competition in the National Pool. The steward would not let me through onto Fabian Way so had no choice than to get into all the traffic jam behind Sancta Maria. Imagine this mum's reaction when we headed back on Fabian Way only to see the steward had opened the road I had just asked to come out on. Having cost her all this stress of possibly missing the competition, he cost her £25 in taxi fare. The mum from London can't believe our council would put all these competitions all on the same weekend. Absolute amateurs were the words used."
Swansea Council cabinet member Robert Francis-Davies said: “The residents of Swansea and Gower turned out in their thousands to enjoy a spectacular weekend of sport – a success reflected in many of their social media discussions about what they saw. The city hosted an amazing week of sport, topped off brilliantly by the weekend’s two world-class events.
“I thank residents and businesses across Swansea and Gower for their patience and understanding as they made changes to their day-to-day lives. We do appreciate that road closures cause some disruption to normal daily routines - but they’re important to make such events as safe as possible for all involved and local residents.
“Bringing top class sport and other events to any location has its challenges but we’re determined to give the people of this area their biggest ever programme of major events. They give local people great things to see and do – and they boost the local economy in a substantial way. This truly was a big weekend of international sport and it shone a global spotlight on Swansea as a destination.”
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