Before I post I must point out that the below is my personal view, and not necessarily that of any organisation I'm involved with!!! (Those who know me will understand that!)
The reason that the Orme is not being used is some peculiar regulation put in by the FIA which says that you cannot have both tarmac and gravel (forest) stage surfaces on the same day. What happened last year, where they ran the Orme then went to Clocaenog, is not to be repeated.
The Orme could be closed by the Council to run a stage if it was deemed that it was needed. The Cambrian Rally (which is totally a separate event from the Wales Rally GB) will be applying for the closure of the Orme on October 20th.
As I understand it, the Welsh Assembly (who are sponsoring the event) required the event to partly take place in north Wales (after all we are all part of the same Wales as those in Cardiff) and the way this was catered for is by having the shakedown stage near Neath on the Wednesday, travel to Llandudno overnight and/or Thursday morning - ceremonial start in Llandudno Thursday evening then put the cars into parc ferme (probably on the Prom as last year) then leave Llandudno early Friday morning for the first gravel/forest stage south of Bala.
There will be ceremonial dinners in Llandudno and the whole circus will be making use of the many hotel rooms. So, for the spectator there is just the ceremonial start or an early watch as they depart Friday morning. Hardly likely to bring in the spectators as last year, which was more successful than many dreamed of (me included).
For those of us who are involved in local motor sport (and I've been involved over 40 years) the whole thing is a most unsatisfactory state of affairs, views that are shared by many others including the world rally teams.
(As for the green environmentally friendly angle - I wonder how green was today's passing of the candle with the whole entourage that accompanied it!!!)
As I said at the start - these are my personal views, and not those of any organisation I'm involved with!