Residents and businesses along the route of the Wales Velothon have been promised the mistakes of last year won’t be repeated in 2016.

Run4Wales, with experience of organising major events such as the Cardiff Half Marathon, have been brought in by Lagardere as ‘local delivery agents’ for this year’s event.

And they were quick to respond to the suggestion that keeping the local community ‘in the loop’ might still be an issue.

Richard Lewis, owner of Middle Ninfa Farm, an award-winning campsite at Llanellen, told the Chronicle that he had only learned by chance, from a third party at a village hall management meeting, that the date of the velothon had been brought forward a month - to May 22.

“This clashes with the date that we and our neighbours at Castell Cwrt were going to hold an open day under the National Gardens Scheme, details of which have already been published in the Yellow Book,” he explained.

“Since we can be pretty sure the cycle event will include the Tumble climb again we are almost certainly going to be cut off for much of the day.

“We have now changed our open garden date to May 8 but of course many visitors will rely on the Yellow Book and will be disappointed when they find all access roads closed!”

He added, “After our correspondence and complaints during and following last year’s event, do you not think they might have taken the trouble to immediately inform us and all the other affected businesses of the change of date in a round-robin email?

“Or could they perhaps have asked local papers like the Chronicle to publish the date change? It doesn’t augur very well…”

Run4Wales were keen to address Richard’s concerns.

A spokesman said they had sent out press releases notifying press and media about the new date but that they were not in a position to give detailed information until the traffic orders were in place 12 weeks before the event.

All local businesses and residents affected by the velothon, however, would be receiving letters at the end of January about the route and proposed road closures - with several reminders in the run-up to May 22.

Matt Newman, Run 4 Wales Chief Executive said, “We’re delighted to have come on board as a local event delivery partner for the 2016 Velothon Wales and we would like to reassure everyone that intensive work is being undertaken to ensure disruption to those residents and business along the 140km route is kept to a minimum.

“Run 4 Wales has a proven track record of delivering high-quality events in Wales.

“Detailed discussions have taken place with all five local authorities and with our local expertise, we believe together we can host an even bigger and better Velothon Wales in 2016.”

He added, “As with all new events there are areas for improvement and we will certainly be taking the recommendations from the independent review on board.”

* Up to 18,000 riders will be able to take part in the UK’s third biggest sportive along a 140km route on closed roads through South Wales.

The 50km route has been removed for 2016 due to lack of demand and to reduce the impact of the extensive road closures that were in place to facilitate two routes in 2015.

For more information see velothon-wales.co.uk