Garff Commissioners say they have never objected to Rally IoM road closures - despite highway services officials claiming they had.

Confidential documents released under Freedom of Information revealed why the Department of Infrastructure had wanted to pulled the plug on the rally for safety reasons.

As it turns out, following a meeting with rally organisers, this year’s event is to go ahead as planned between September 13 to 15.

Notes of a highway services’ debrief meeting with rally organisers, released under FoI, states that ’numerous complaints from the public had been received’.

They said Onchan, Braddan and Garff had each submitted objections to road closures in their areas in any future Rally IoM event.

The debrief minutes note: ’Onchan Commissioners complained about the Classic Stage, as there were significant traffic management issues affecting Douglas Promenade and Summerhill Road.

’Braddan and Garff complaints were generally associated with the ineffective PR.’

But Garff Commissioners said in a statement: ’The commissioners wish to set the record straight in regard to this matter by affirming that they have never objected to the rally or any associated road closures.’

And it claimed: ’Following an investigation by the department their statement has been retracted.

The chairman of Garff Commissioners, Nigel Dobson, said that the commissioners would always support well-run events that brought visitors to the sheading.

The FoI response includes the letter sent to organisers in July this year by head of highway and asset management Tim Cowin, notifying them that the department had ’no alternative’ but to refuse permission for the road closures requested.