Cheltenham Racecourse announces today the launch of “Love Our Turf” – a new initiative which seeks to reinforce and strengthen the relationship between the Home of Jump Racing and the local community.
With 30,000 racegoers anticipated for the Saturday of The November Meeting later this week (Saturday 12th November), Cheltenham Racecourse is embarking on its promise to promote positive behaviour from racegoers before, during and after racedays. This Saturday will be used to trial the initiative ahead of The Festival™ in March.
‘Love Our Turf’ is a new community-focussed initiative, which will launched in full for The Festival™. Cheltenham Racecourse, working alongside local stakeholders including Gloucestershire Police and Cheltenham BID (Business Improvement District), is keen to put key elements of it in place in time for the high attendance fixture this Saturday in order to ensure that learnings can be taken forward to March when around 260,000 racegoers attend over four days.
Saturday’s activation of Love Our Turf will focus primarily on Evesham Road. At The Festival, the Love Our Turf campaign will extend to incorporate other arrival recognised routes including Albert Road, Tommy Taylors, Paddocks Lane and the end of the Honeybourne Line footpath.
Each of the recognised routes to and from the racecourse will be promoted with the use of wayfinding ushers, enhanced street cleaning with more bins and increased toilet facilities.
Love Our Turf will eventually aim to enhance the whole journey from the town to the racecourse for those arriving at the track on foot with future provision of street entertainers and selfie locations.
Andre Klein, Cheltenham Racecourse Community Engagement Manager, said:
“We absolutely recognised the feedback from members of our local community and racegoers that there was a need for us to enhance the experience of pedestrians arriving and departing from the racecourse, and we hope that Love Our Turf will go some way to delivering that.
“Additional wayfinders and stewards, as well as the provision of additional facilities and amenities should alleviate many of the concerns raised by our local residents.
“We are really excited about this new initiative and know we will learn plenty from our experience on Saturday that we can take forward to March, to ensure that the negative impact our events have on the community are massively reduced and just as importantly that our racegoers journey are significantly improved.”
Heath Gunter. Chief Executive of Cheltenham BID, added:
“It is terrific to see Cheltenham Racecourse take on board the feedback they received from the local community and launch the Love Our Turf campaign.
“Cheltenham BID is fully supportive of the campaign, and we are looking forward to seeing the positive impact it has on the town centre during the November meeting and the Festival week.”
