Event Description

Cycling is an ideal activity for charity fund-raising. It’s very inclusive and you’re on to a winner right from the start because people simply won’t believe how far it’s possible to ride as a virtual novice, so the ‘jubilation level’ at the end when your riders find they have successfully ridden 25, 50, 100 or 1,000 miles will be enormous. And they’ll all want to come back for more next year!

Planning

A lot will depend on the size and type of event you are planning. If it’s involving fewer than 20 people and you’re just riding round a field, then there is much less to do than if you are organising a 100-mile ride on the public highway for 100 riders. Plan well ahead, use your common sense, leave nothing to chance and you’re well on your way to a successful event already.

This information is primarily for organisers of short one-day events. There is some supplementary info for people organising longer events. It provides an overview of some areas you must consider, rather than a comprehensive guide.

A Sunday is probably the best day for a charity ride because traffic levels are usually at their lowest, especially Sunday mornings.

Also, choose a time of year when the weather is likely to be warm and dry. June is more likely to be better than November, although there'll be more competing events at that time of year. 

Informing the police and local authorities

There is no legal requirement to notify the authorities of your proposed event, unless you are hoping to have a closed road route or it could be construed as being one of the following activities that:

• demonstrate support for or opposition to the views or actions of any person or body of persons
• publicise a cause or campaign, or
• mark or commemorate an event

Then advance notice must be given, unless it is not reasonably practicable to do so. The notice must specify:

• the date when it is intended to hold the procession
• the time when it is intended to start it
• its proposed route, and
• the name and address of the person (or one of the persons) proposing to organise it.

It must be delivered at least six days before the event.

However, you may wish to do so as a courtesy but be prepared for a less than positive response, although they have no powers to actually ban or stop the event. 

In the first instance, enquiries with regard to the planning of public events should be directed to the Safety Advisory Group (SAG) of your local authority: In Scotland, email the relevant Emergency, Event and Resilience Planning Unit for your area requesting the Form 107-001.

Insurance

Don’t even think about organising an event without taking it out comprehensive insurance to protect not only yourself as event organiser but anybody involved in helping run it and the general public. 

Third Party/Public Liability Insurance:  the organiser needs to have this and, in an ideal world, participants will have it as well. If they don’t have it, and they have a collision involving a third party, then the liability could be passed on to the organiser. In such a case, although unproven in case law, the ‘disclaimer’ is all the more important. You want to aim to have both. You’ll need to take out public liability insurance at least to the limit of £1 million, though you may feel a higher limit is appropriate.

Cycling UK's Organisers' Liability insurance for affiliated groups provides up to £10 million of cover for £75 a year (depending on the size of the event) and provides cover for all volunteers involved in the running of an event, subject to our Terms and Conditions. Individual riders may, in addition, then take out their own Third Party liability insurance at a cost of £24 per year and become Cycling UK Affiliate members.

Affiliating to Cycling UK also brings the benefit that you can register your event with us and it will then appear in our list of UK Cycling Events and therefore reach a wider audience. 

Alternatively, you might choose to approach a local Cycling UK group to see if they will adopt the event as one of theirs. As a registered event organiser and a member of Cycling UK, you will be covered by Cycling UK’s Organisers' Liability insurance for Member Groups, again subject to our Terms and Conditions. However, the local group would clearly need to be identified as the main organiser of the event.

Another option is to hold your event during Bike Week – usually held in mid-June every year. Events held during this week and either side of it that are registered as official Bike Week events are automatically insured. However, as ever, don’t forget to read the small print!

Event details and schedule

Schedule of events: June 24, 2018