1/04/2009         Press Release

Health & Safety Rules Puts The Brakes On Cookham Dean Gravity Grand Prix ‘Ridiculous’ Euro-Rules Mean Race Must Relocate To High Street. A shock health & safety ruling is set to force a change of course for the Cookham Dean Gravity Grand Prix.

The organisers of the charity event have branded the ruling by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) as ‘ridiculous’. The committee has been told that karts’ brakes do not meet new EC regulations. The shattering news came in a letter from the HSE.  It states: “I must

inform you that the karts used in the Cookham Dean Gravity Grand Prix are defined as ‘powered road vehicles’ for the purpose of the Act.

“Although the legislation has yet to receive Royal Assent in Parliament, all vehicles taking part will need to comply with Regulation (EC/6151512/041/AF) Braking Efficiency (Amendment) Act 2009.”

Peter Bartlett, one of the event organisers, stormed: “The problem we have,as always, is with the letter-of-the-law UK interpretation of an EC directive. “Anyone with any sense would class the carts as un-powered. The HSE in their wisdom have taken the definition literally and decided that the karts are indeed powered – by gravity.

“As powered road vehicles they fall within the scope of the regulations,which means that the braking systems of all the karts will need to be certificated against the new standard. It’s ridiculous – and you can be very sure the organisers of the rival French and German events won’t be subject to the same petty bureaucracy. My feeling is that the Dutch are behind this. They have never recognised the sport”

Bartlett went on. “I telephoned the HSE and spoke someone who was exceedingly unhelpful. The fact that we raised £10k for charity made no difference to this man’s attitude. He kept saying that he had seen a video of the event on YouTube and thought it should be stopped, regardless.

“This jobsworth approach threatens to undermine Britain’s standing as a world class Gravity Racing nation. “It seems that the only way around the ruling is to hold the event on flat ground. The committee have decided that, although some last minute changes to the rules will have to be made, Cookham High Street is now the likely venue.”