{"id":1022,"date":"2013-05-14T08:45:01","date_gmt":"2013-05-14T08:45:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/olympics\/?p=1022"},"modified":"2021-10-25T08:08:57","modified_gmt":"2021-10-25T08:08:57","slug":"stoke-and-huddersfield-papers-report-on-torch-relay-costs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/olympics\/stoke-and-huddersfield-papers-report-on-torch-relay-costs\/","title":{"rendered":"Stoke and Huddersfield papers report on torch relay costs"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Stoke<\/a><\/p>\n

The Stoke Sentinel<\/strong> and Huddersfield Examiner<\/strong> have reported on Freedom of Information requests from Help Me Investigate about torch relay spending.<\/p>\n

This is Staffordshire report<\/a>\u00a0on the \u00a3189,730 cost of the relay to Stoke-on-Trent City Council, while The Huddersfield Daily Examiner’s Linda Whitwam asks<\/a> “Was [the \u00a356,000 cost] worth it?”<\/p>\n

Both flesh out the figures with quotes from participants, spectators and councillors – but little new information about the background to the varying spending figures, or any negotiations with Olympic organisers LOCOG. One new piece of information to emerge, however, is the claim by Stoke-on-Trent\u00a0Councillor Paul Shotton<\/strong> that the relay “boosted the local economy by \u00a3298,000.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

It’s not clear where the cabinet member for commissioning, procurement and finance got the figure from. With 26,000 “attracted onto the streets of the city” according to Shotton, the boost represents a spend of \u00a311.46 per person.<\/p>\n

Similar claims have been made elsewhere: Cornwall Council claimed<\/a> an incredible \u00a33.77million “potential” boost to the economy six months after<\/em> the event, and Dorset said<\/a>\u00a0the relay would give their region a \u00a33million boost.<\/p>\n

In contrast, a report by sponsors Lloyds Bank<\/a> said the\u00a0Olympic Torch Relay:<\/p>\n

“is not estimated to generate\u00a0any additional expenditure from people lining the torch route, due to its goal\u00a0of travelling to within 10 miles of 95% of the UK population. However, some\u00a0of the 66 evening celebrations are likely to attract large crowds who will\u00a0purchase transport tickets, food, beverages, and souvenirs.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Do you want to help find out how these figures were arrived at?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u00a0on the \u00a3189,730 cost of the relay to Stoke-on-Trent City Council, while The Huddersfield Daily Examiner’s … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[79,3],"tags":[736,237,737,734,735,738,115],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/olympics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1022"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/olympics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/olympics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/olympics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/olympics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1022"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/olympics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1022\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1025,"href":"http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/olympics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1022\/revisions\/1025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/olympics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/olympics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/olympics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}