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Welcome to Yorkshire chief meets Prime Minister and cabinet to ask for Tour de France cashLeeds Headrow and Town Hall (credit Welcome to Yorkshire www.yorkshire.com)

Welcome to Yorkshire chief meets Prime Minister and cabinet to ask for Tour de France cash

Grand Départ organisers seek government help in meeting £10 million cost of staging event next year
by Simon_MacMichael
Tue, Jan 29, 2013 08:44
7

Organisers of next year’s Tour de France Grand Départ in Yorkshire yesterday met with Prime Minister David Cameron and other members of the cabinet to seek government help for the estimated £10 million cost of staging the event.

Welcome to Yorkshire chief executive Gary Verity had been invited by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, who is MP for Sheffield Hallam, to address yesterday’s regional cabinet meeting in Leeds, the city which will host the build up to the 2014 Tour and the start of Stage 1.

“Being asked to brief the Cabinet about the Tour de France shows how seriously this Government is taking the Grand Départ,” said Mr Verity afterwards, quoted in the Northern Echo.

“This is undoubtedly a moment for the whole country, not just Yorkshire, to celebrate and today’s positive discussions and feedback from the Cabinet show we are now moving in the right direction.

“Make no mistake, this is a national event, co-ordinated in Yorkshire, for the benefit of Britain. The Cabinet understood that today and I look forward to more positive conversations in the weeks and months ahead.”

Mr Verity also met separately with Culture Secretary Maria Miller, who said that she was keen to see the Tour’s visit provide a lasting legacy, including every child in the region having access to a bike and cycle training.

A government spokesman commented: “It’s great that Yorkshire will host the Grand Départ of the biggest road race in the world next year.
“Cycling is in fantastic shape in Britain, both at the elite end and in grassroots participation, and the Tour coming to these shores will help grow the sport further.”

The Grand Départ, which will see two stages in Yorkshire followed by one from Cambridge to London before the race heads back to France, is expected to generate up to £100 million for the local economy.

Full details of the event can be found on the Le Tour Yorkshire website.

Yorkshire Grand Depart
Welcome to Yorkshire
Tour de France 2014
Simon MacMichael

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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7 comments

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doc | 11 years ago
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It will be good for the country.
The legacy would be great if road racing blossoms, which it could.
The government spokesman who said that the sport was in good shape can't have been involved with all he struggles BC have been having to get a proper set of up to date regulations implemented so we can have safe and secure road racing, can he or she?

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ubercurmudgeon | 11 years ago
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Oh for f*** sake, just set up a Kickstarter or other crowd-funding appeal. Every cycling fan in the country is going to spend, at minimum, hundreds of pounds just getting there and staying for a few nights, so donating a few quid each wouldn't be a huge problem. Of course, if local taxation were based on income, and profits in the case of businesses, then all the money we are going to spend in Yorkshire would pay for it eventually. But if it would prevent this becoming yet another political issue, and keep it out of the hands of arsewipes like Clegg and Cameron, and away from the legacy-mongers who cannot let a sporting event just be a sporting event and not an excuse for grandiose gestures involving giving away crap bikes to every bog-brush-headed little brat, then I'd throw in a tenner.

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notfastenough replied to ubercurmudgeon | 11 years ago
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ubercurmudgeon wrote:

Oh for f*** sake, just set up a Kickstarter or other crowd-funding appeal. Every cycling fan in the country is going to spend, at minimum, hundreds of pounds just getting there and staying for a few nights, so donating a few quid each wouldn't be a huge problem. Of course, if local taxation were based on income, and profits in the case of businesses, then all the money we are going to spend in Yorkshire would pay for it eventually. But if it would prevent this becoming yet another political issue, and keep it out of the hands of arsewipes like Clegg and Cameron, and away from the legacy-mongers who cannot let a sporting event just be a sporting event and not an excuse for grandiose gestures involving giving away crap bikes to every bog-brush-headed little brat, then I'd throw in a tenner.

Good rant! 4

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cavasta | 11 years ago
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Shouldn't they have secured government funding before they submitted their bid? 17

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mad_scot_rider replied to cavasta | 11 years ago
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They better hope the funding is forthcoming - or it's eggy-faces all round

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robdaykin (not verified) replied to cavasta | 11 years ago
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cavasta wrote:

Shouldn't they have secured government funding before they submitted their bid? 17

unlike the edinburgh bid, which didn't even have support from the Edinburgh council, the Yorkshire bid had sufficient financial backing from local councils based on the original planned date of 2016.

Bringing it forward to 2014 has probably crowded the budgets and necessitated road repairs scheduled to be done by 2016 to be pulled forward. Given that the Edinburgh bid was touting central funding and backing the Yorkshire team are now looking to see if any of that money is available, given that it was apparently promised to the unsuccessful bid, that the date has been pulled forward and that one of the 3 stages in Yorkshire originally planned will now run from Cambridge into London.
And if the money is not available the race will still go on, only Cameron won't get to sit in the race control car down the Mall.

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SideBurn | 11 years ago
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Givernment help? Is that a spelling mistake or are you saying something here?
I wonder whether the Clarksonites will focus on the £10M cost or the estimated 10 to 1 return on investment? But whatever it's the Tour! It's here 4

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