The Otley run is famous throughout Yorkshire with many people taking in the challenge to celebrate their stag, hen do, birthday, new hair cut – any excuse really.
And with people mainly behaving accordingly (AKA, a little bit tipsy), it seems that local residents are no longer happy with the fancy dress pub crawl.
The crawl, which definitely has people in high spirits, consists of 18 pubs and is quite the boozy challenge. With people dressed as anything from Super Mario, traffic cones or school girls it can be quite the hilarious spectacle, but it seems that some locals are finally putting their foot down.
A consultation was held last week to discuss the crawl and it’s numerous problems. Alex Sobel, Labour MP for Leeds North West, alongside other members of local government met with groups in Leeds to discuss potential options.
Issues such as anti social behaviour like public urination and sexual harassment were some of the problems discussed, alongside mobility issues for people with prams and disabled people.
A conclusion was made that action would need to be taken. A statement on the Weetwood Rose website read: “This is a situation that cannot be allowed to continue along the current course and we are taking action to see meaningful change.
“To achieve this, we have to explore several different avenues and potential interventions. So far we have met with Safer Leeds, Child Friendly Headingley and Women’s Lives Leeds to encourage a joined up approach to tackling this problem.
“We are meeting with licensing at the council to explore our statutory options. We are also inviting bars to participate in a round table to see what more could be done to support residents and to ensure a ‘code of conduct’ goes up in every pub. And we are meeting with the other local businesses to find out what extra support they need.”
A code of conduct and application for more patrols to be done at peak times were some of the solutions suggested – along with removing advertisements for the run to reduce coach trips appearing in Headingley.
The iconic pub crawl attracts thousands every year, making up a large percentage of local businesses revenue.
[Featured image: A butcher, a pig and a psychedelic gaggle of gals from 1969/Briggate/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 4.0
