Hartlepool Council drilled about festival funds raid for Olympic torch relay

Posted on June 21, 2013 by Paul Bradshaw

Hartlepool Council have defended their decision to fund part of the Olympic Torch Relay with money intended for a maritime festival.

The Hartlepool Mail spoke to the council after finding out about the spending through Help Me Investigate. They report:

“The Maritime Festival had a budget of £35,000 and officers say around 10 per cent of that, plus external sports funding, covered the £10,000 cost of hosting the Olympic Torch.

[A council spokesman said] “The bulk of the Maritime Festival budget was spent on staging the Diamond Festival, a celebration of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee which took place on the weekend of June 2/3 – two weeks prior to the arrival of the torch.

“The subsequent decision to end the Maritime Festival was part of the council’s wide-ranging strategy to deal with Government budget cuts and it had nothing whatsoever to do with the money spent on hosting the Olympic Torch.”

Useful Olympic links for May 21st through June 7th

Posted on June 7, 2013 by Paul Bradshaw

Olympic news roundup for 11:21:

Olympic torch cost £639 a minute through Northampton – Business News – Northampton Chronicle and Echo –
ThisIs –
Olympic Torch relay costs Waltham Forest second most in UK (From This Is Local London) –
Sunderland’s Olympic Torch celebrations total £28,000 cost revealed – All News – Sunderland Echo – A Freedom of Information request by the Echo has revealed the authority spent £11,764 on preparing the torch’s route through the city, and another £16,199 on Herrington Country Park’s celebration event. Road closures along the route cost the council £4,425, while its preparation and eventual clean-up
Bexley Council defends spending on Olympic Torch Relay (From News Shopper) – Defending the investment, a Bexley Council spokeswoman said: “The Torch Relay and evening celebration were once in a lifetime events and were a great success “Sixty per cent of the total budget, £166,000, was secured from external funds. “The remaining 40 per cent, £113,000, was met from existing bud

Useful Olympic links for May 10th through May 20th

Posted on May 20, 2013 by Paul Bradshaw

Olympic news roundup for 20:51: Continue reading →

Stoke and Huddersfield papers report on torch relay costs

Posted on May 14, 2013 by Paul Bradshaw

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

Posted on April 25, 2013 by Paul Bradshaw

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

Sutton Guardian picks up Olympic torch relay figures

Posted on March 28, 2013 by Paul Bradshaw

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

Posted on March 27, 2013 by Paul Bradshaw

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

Posted on March 27, 2013 by Paul Bradshaw

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

Posted on March 21, 2013 by Paul Bradshaw

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.”

Useful Olympic links for October 4th through January 28th

Posted on January 28, 2013 by Paul Bradshaw

Olympic news roundup for 11:06:

Contractors’ Olympic marketing ban lifted | News | Construction News – A ban on Olympic contractors promoting their involvement in the construction of the London 2012 infrastructure will be lifted this month, allowing firms to promote their involvement in the Olympics when bidding for work.
Olympic Games ‘failed to inspire’ – UK News – News – Birmingham Post – The Olympic Games inspired fewer than one-in-five people to take part in more sport, according to a new poll. Continue reading →

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