THE organisers of the Swindon Half Marathon have apologised to those caught up in traffic chaos today but have promised that road closure management will improve next year.

Hundreds of people took to social media to report gridlock across the town as a number of road closures were put in place to ensure the race went smoothly.

Many said it had taken them over two hours to do what usually takes 15 minutes.

But now, Graeme Hardie, one of the race directors told the Adver: "From a competitor point of view, the race today was a massive success, and many have commented on just how amazing the organisation was, with several saying it was the best half marathon they’ve ever attended, and a real attribute to the town.  

"However, as we expected for year one, the disruption to the town has created some negativity, and our Facebook reviews are a real mixed bag of competitors singing its praise, and then residents slating the race for the traffic delays.

"For us as an event, it’s a learning process, and although we exceeded the level of notification required for the closures by some margin, we can see from the amount of reported traffic issues and them being unaware of the event, that we need to do more, and will make sure that we do exactly that for future years.

"We’re truly sorry to any residents that were caught up in the traffic today, and hope that no one has had a completely ruined day caused by delays from the race."

A total of 26 roads were closed during today's half marathon and advanced warning notices had been put up around the town over two weeks ago.

Graeme added: "This week, we’ll debrief with all the various parties involved in the organisation of today’s race (Police, Council, Highways, traffic Management company etc), and we’ll make changes to ensure the situation is improved for all next year, not least the notification and signage planning.

"We already have some slight tweaks to the course that will help significantly next year, but they couldn’t be implemented in time this year due the constraints of the short period of time in which the event was organised.

"We created the route with the intention of giving a town centre course to the runners to highlight the parts of Swindon that people know and love the town for, and there’s tweaks that can be made to ensure that we minimise the disruption, and bolstering up of certain positions with Police to manage vehicle crossings, and I would like all residents to know that.

"We’ve run this race from day one to be something great for the town, and for us that means not just the running community, but the residents of the town as a whole.

"Today’s competitors generated tens of thousands of pounds for charity, and our 15 partner charities are all local Swindon charities that were chosen specifically to benefit us as town, so we hope that some of that offsets the disruption caused."

Anyone with feedback can contact the organisers by emailing hello@newswindonhalf.co.uk