T in the Park has dumped its traffic management team after roads chaos at last year’s festival.
The company which was meant to keep roads safe and clear during the show’s Strathallan Castle debut has been replaced in the run-up to thissummer’s event, organisers confirmed.
A year ago, SEP Ltd whichpreviously worked at Silverstone and the Royal Highland Show said thatpredictions of “traffic chaos” would be wide of the mark.
However, the July festival ended on a low note with thousands of revellers stranded for several hours in traffic queues and many forced to walk through dark country roads to reach pick-up points.
Festival boss Geoff Ellis laterapologised and said that problems would be straightened out for thissummer’s show.
Promoter DF Concerts revealed it had appointed several new faces including two former police chiefs as part of a major restructuring of the operations team.
Former T in the Park police event commander Colin Brown has been made security manager, while former roads police inspector Ian Martin will take on the role of traffic manager.
APL Events has been appointed to look after site management.
Event manager Colin Rodger said: “We’ve had a full de-brief on the 2015 festival with all relevant agenciesincluding Police Scotland, TrafficScotland and Perth and Kinross Council as well as festival-goers and residents.
“We have listened to every singlecomment and we thank everyone for their valuable input.
“By restructuring the management of key areas, such as the site and security, we will solve issues from last year’s event.”
Mr Martin has worked on roads around the Perth and Kinross patch for more than 20 years. He has been involved in road planning of T in the Park since its first year at Balado.
He said: “I’m thrilled to be on board as traffic manager. I have worked with the festival for many years, so am more than familiar with the planning process of an event of this stature. I look forward to implementing my experience to my role.”
Mr Brown added he was lookingforward to “revamping” security.
“This year we want to make sure festival-goers can have fun and feel safe while on site,” he said.