WHAT do Birmingham Velo and Marmite have in common?

You either love it or hate it.

There’s very little middle ground.

People have been firmly divided since news first broke that 15,000 riders were going to descend on Worcestershire’s roads, forcing some of them to be closed for eight hours.

We’ve followed the story throughout and it has turned into something of a soap opera. First there was an outcry that 60-plus miles of Worcestershire’s roads were effectively going to be taken over by visiting cyclists.

Pubs and wedding venues said they would lose money. Villagers in Ombersley said they would be cut off for the day. A vicar raised concerns about how he would reach his own church services.

Questions were asked about whether Worcestershire County Council officers knew how extensive the road closures would be when they agreed to it.

And there were concerns raised that organisers CSM had sold tickets and publicised the route before road closures were actually finalised.

The outcry led to route changes.

Herefordshire was missed out altogether and a lot of the route in west Worcestershire was diverted, with riders covering more of Staffordshire.

Our readers were sharply divided on the issue with some welcoming big events to Worcestershire while others said the disruption was too high a price to pay.

Whether you think the race is good or bad, though, the reaction to it shows that something went horribly wrong.

And I don’t think it takes a genius to work out that a major error was the lack of consultation before a seemingly unstoppable machine swung into action for this major event.

You can’t always make decisions by committee but the people living and working along the route - the people who would be most affected - deserved the chance to have their say BEFORE a decision was made - not after.

Why did this not happen? Had a proper consultation been held, the scale of bad feeling towards the idea may have led to a different decision.

Or it may not. But at least no one could say we didn’t know about this and we weren’t asked about this.

Isn’t that the democracy we are supposed to live in?