Rally4Wales – Our Mission Statement and Update on Aberhirnant Forest.

There seems to be a lot of misinformation circulating around the role of NRW, Rally4Wales, Motorsport UK and how a situation such as that in Aberhirnant occurred on Saturday. Below, we’ve tried as best we can to address some of the major points being discussed by many for some clarity. Our sole interest in posting this is ensuring situations like this don’t happen again:

Rally4Wales role:
We are a road repair civil engineering company. We don’t ‘prepare’ gravel roads for rallying use in advance of events. All NRW roads used for rallying in Wales since January 2017 have been used on the basis that they are taken ‘as they come’ – i.e. the onus is on the organiser to select the best available roads at the time from the forest blocks allocated to them for an event. Rally4Wales has a legal contract in place with each organising team. Our responsibility is to return the road back to the landowner/agent in at least the same condition it was received in, or better (known as betterment). There is no contractual mechanism in place for us to ‘prepare’ a forest road ahead of a rally, unless someone requests and pays for that work to be done. We charge a per mile rate plus VAT for repairs based on first/second usage, in line with the charging model we inherited in 2016. We invest the fees received from organisers directly back into our civils repair work, stone etc.

NRW’s role:
NRW remain the landowner/agent. They charge organising clubs for CROW permit/fees to host a rally on their land. However, they do not charge for the use of the roads for rallying, on the condition that Rally4Wales repairs them following the event. Any roads selected for a rally are handed over on the basis that they are taken as found – i.e. no preparation work will be done apart from the very basics, i.e. fallen down trees would be removed etc. The preference from NRW is always that the repair work commences ASAP following the passage of a rally. This can range from 72 hours after the last stage has finished, through to a couple of weeks maximum. NRW approve the allocation of routes for events, based on information supplied by organisers and the MUK Forestry Liaison Officer as part of the Motorsport UK allocation process. This works months in advance of the planned events but initially only captures information on intended forest blocks to be used. Therefore, for example, an event could have an allocation in Penmachno, Dyfnant, Dyfi in that initial process – but they would not have to disclose the potential roads/route likely to be used initially until much later into the planning stages. NRW recognise that this can then cause problems later down the line – and routinely does.

Why did Aberhirnant end up looking like the surface of the moon in places?
It is no secret that Wales is currently experiencing unprecedented levels of timber harvesting and extraction, both through commercial demand and due to extensive outbreaks of tree disease. In Aberhirnant since late 2017, thousands of tonnes of timber has been extracted using the main artery of roads running through the stage. For Wales Rally GB 2017, a situation was identified by NRW just days ahead of recce where a section of the stage (J4 to J8 of the Plains Rally 2019) was badly affected by harvesting traffic and was unfit for recce/rally use. This road was badly damaged due to endless logging traffic and 2 months of sustained very wet weather. Rally4Wales were called in urgently by NRW to make a basic repair, finishing a matter of hours ahead of recce. Following the passage of the event, we were asked by NRW to leave repairing this section to allow their civils contractor to make an extensive emergency repair with large stone to allow the timber extraction to continue during first half of 2018. We completed works on the rest of the stage in Jan 2018. As of now further works are in progress to support a forthcoming heavy timber haulage operation over this route in 2019.

So what needs to change?
The Plains Rally organisers rightly (in R4W’s view) tried to move their stage locations to alternative forest venues in North Wales – but outside of their ‘allocated forest blocks’. It is our understanding that the request was not permitted, so they ended up having to run those original forest blocks allocated. Rally4Wales has said since 2017 (on record, in meetings, etc) that the process of allocation for routes in Wales is not fit for purpose, is too rigid, and does not have enough flexibility within it to deal with situations where harvesting can be arranged within forests within a matter of days, not weeks – throwing organisers plans into jeopardy. NRW recognise that the system doesn’t work and want to change to a more dynamic, reactive model. Rally4Wales is currently working with them to put new processes in place to better aid organisers for the future. It is hoped that this system will be agreed ahead of 2020. The ideal method is organisers work with Rally4Wales to review Plan A/Plan B routes in advance of events so that we can target areas likely to be affected by harvesting or forestry works, working closely with NRW staff. Those routes need only be sketch map outlines in the early stages. There will never be a ‘perfect’ system due to the ‘live’ nature of forest engineering and timber extraction, but it reflects the need to modernise. Nobody can ever guarantee that a stage planned to run will not be impacted in some way due to harvesting or forestry civils works.

What happens to Aberhirnant now?
Rally4Wales will commence repairs to the first half of the stage and the end of the stage very shortly. Following a meeting with local area NRW staff on 14/5/19, some temporary repair work will be done on the most affected rough sections. However, the full repair work to J4 to J8 will have to be done at a date to be decided later in the year as more forestry operations are planned imminently. So here’s the crux of this matter. Now, we have a situation where the organisers of a major event in Wales have an intention to use Aberhirnant later this year potentially. There’s still 7,000 tonnes of timber to be extracted from there from the forthcoming harvesting project. This means that a 9 mile stage now has a major chunk totally unfit for rallying use smack in the middle of it. The company that repairs the road for rallying (us!) can’t repair it the way we want currently as there are hundreds of trips planned for heavy haulage to go over that road this year.

The bottom line is that Aberhirnant is now in a state of flux. It isn’t a realistic proposition as a 9 mile rally stage currently, and depending on how the repairs to the centre section go, whenever they are done – it could remain compromised for a couple of years further. Rally4Wales budgets to make one visit to venues for repairs otherwise our mobilisation, diesel, transport and labour costs rise incrementally. We don’t budget to have to return and we never have in our cost model. We’ll now have considerable extra costs for this repair due to the need to import additional stone and machinery into the forest for this repair work. This will punch a significant hole into a tight repair budget.

So there you go. An open, honest assessment of this situation from our side. Simply, we need to change the way we plan out routes so that we always have fall back options as we’ve said countless times before. We all need clearer contingency options and we need more flexibility in the processes. We only use 9% of the available NRW road network in Wales, but we hear countless tales of why we can’t do things, rather than being ‘glass half full’ and looking at why we can.

We’ve been lobbying hard for change with Motorsport UK to the allocation process to reflect our unique circumstances in Wales. We hope the new methods of working suggested above can bring better results. We really can do so much better with some modernisation and forward thinking. We really should not have a repeat of this unfortunate episode.

Finally, a word for Les Sharp from the Plains Rally. Les is a committed Clerk of the Course who works extremely hard to put on an event each year. He has held his hand up and apologised for the condition of the stage. It’s now up to everyone involved to ensure that we all demand improvements to the process of how we select our routes and support the events who put their necks on the line when organising a rally in the current climate. Let’s use this unfortunate episode as a catalyst for change and improvement in Welsh forest rallying. Rally4Wales wants to support every organiser to put on an event that showcases the best we can offer on some of the best gravel roads in the world.

Jamie Edwards, Managing Director, #Rally4Wales.