Olympic news roundup for 20:51: Continue reading
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Press Association repeats Olympic torch relay costs investigation – 3 months after Help Me Investigate
The Press Association has picked up on the costs of the Olympic torch relay as it reports on the anniversary of the start of the event
Dozens of regional newspapers across the UK have published the newswire story on the “£6m cost of Olympic torch relay” – first revealed on Help Me Investigate following Freedom of Information requests by contributors including Carol Miers, Juliet Ferguson, Jess Denham and Steve Walker.
The article says that ”figures were obtained by the Press Association under the Freedom of Information Act.”
Help Me Investigate reported on responses to an initial 100 FOI requests in February this year, and published an interactive database of costs with The Guardian in March. Continue reading
Stoke and Huddersfield papers report on torch relay costs
The Stoke Sentinel and Huddersfield Examiner have reported on Freedom of Information requests from Help Me Investigate about torch relay spending.
This is Staffordshire report on the £189,730 cost of the relay to Stoke-on-Trent City Council, while The Huddersfield Daily Examiner’s Linda Whitwam asks “Was [the £56,000 cost] worth it?” Continue reading
Useful Olympic links for March 8th through April 25th
Olympic news roundup for 17:51:
- Olympic torch to borough cost £10k | HeraldandPost | News | Wellingborough-and-Rushden-News –
- How the Olympic Legacy has affected London’s independent businesses | Independent Everything – A report released by the Federation for Small Businesses in March of this year revealed that 69 per cent of businesses believed the Olympics were good for business, however, 26 per cent of businesses claimed that the Olympics led to a “post-games” negative impact on business. The then Culture Secreta
- What I told the FBI about the FIFA crooks | – Law enforcement sources in New York and Washington confirmed today that they are investigating “a major case” involving allegations of corruption at FIFA. The probe is into allegations of fraud and bribery. It began in the North, Central American and Caribbean regional football confederation but the
- Terrorism arrests rose 60% in year building up to Olympics – The latest official statistics show that 245 people were arrested under counter-terrorism legislation in the 12 months to September 2012 – a 60% increase compared to 153 over the same period 12 months before. And in the three months immediately before the Olympics, the number of terrorism arrests nea
- Sports: Finance: 25 Feb 2013: Hansard Written Answers and Statements – TheyWorkForYou – The Department has not provided any direct financial support to any other sporting events in either (a) 2010, (b) 2011 or (c) 2012. UK Sport is the Government agency responsible for allocating lottery funds, rather than Exchequer funding, to major events and has supported the UK's Major Sports Events
Torch relay bill update – 128 authorities, £5.5m
128 public authorities spent a combined £5.5m on staging the Olympic torch relay, according to the latest figures being compiled by Help Me Investigate users.
The figure – based on Freedom of Information requests to local councils and police bodies – adds a further £1m to the costs identified based on a survey of 100 authorities in February, and further supports the estimate of a national cost at over £13m. Continue reading
Correction: CCTV spending by Aberdeen City, not Aberdeenshire Council
We previously reported that Aberdeenshire had spent part of their torch relay funds on CCTV. This should have said Aberdeen City Council.
We apologise for the error. The original post, and the database, have been corrected.
Aberdeen City Council’s torch relay expenditure can be found here.
Aberdeenshire Council’s funding of torch relay costs can be found here; it is also detailed below.
- Staff Costs £ 5,912.30
- Road Closures/Advertisements etc £ 7,640.67
- Construction Costs £ 4,026.20
- Vehicle Charges £ 1,613.25
- Florescent Vests £ 200.00 (retained for future use)
- Event at Balmoral Castle £ 7,988.62
- Total Cost £27,381.04
Sutton Guardian picks up Olympic torch relay figures
The Sutton Guardian have reported on local spending on the Olympic torch relay disclosed as part of Help Me Investigate’s investigation.
Mike Pyle writes that the local council paid £9,000 for the torch’s journey through the area. This covered stewards, barriers, road closures, road signs, St John Ambulance staff, street cleaning and publicity.
Those costs combined came to less than a fifth of the cost of bunting in the area, one of the highest in the country: £50,000 was used from another local government body to fund the decorations.
HMI’s Olympic torch relay spending data in The Guardian’s datablog
Apologies for not publishing this earlier, but we have also been publishing the data on public spending on the torch relay in The Guardian Datablog. You can find it here.
Leicestershire’s £230,000 Olympic torch relay bill – Leicester Mercury
The Leicester Mercury’s Dan Martin reports on torch relay spending in the county:
“The council said it footed a bill of £102,641 when the torch came to the city last July. Most of that, £81,560, was spent on a giant party in Abbey Park, attended by about 20,000 people to celebrate the torch’s arrival.
“The rest was spent on closing the roads, crowd barriers, security, and first aid provision as the torch entourage passed through the city.
“Leicestershire County Council told the Mercury it spent £29,600 on traffic management and staffing as the torch passed through the county in July and during a rehearsal for the relay in April.
“Leicestershire Police said it cost them £103,629 in staffing and overtime to supervise the rehearsal event and the real thing.”
The figures tally with data we’ve published on councils’ spending on the relay. Leicester City Council were one of the biggest spenders in the country.
The figures given to the Mercury, however, omit to mention that the total costs before external funding and income were much higher, at around £150,000. Curiously, the city did not seem to have received any funding from LOCOG for hosting a dress rehearsal for the Olympic organisers.
The Olympic letters that cost as much as road closures – Birmingham
The Birmingham Mail have published one of the stories from our investigation into torch relay spending:
“Birmingham City Council spent over £16,000 on letters to residents when the Olympic torch relay came through the region – almost as much as it spent on road closures.
“Birmingham’s costs, including £9,000 for security, came to £43,000.
“Neighbouring Walsall spent just under £22,000 on their leg of the relay, despite it spending less than three hours in the region, with security costs coming to £11,000 and a further £2,220 spent on staff overtime.”