NORTH YORKSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL
EXECUTIVE
13 July 2021
Support for the Tour de Yorkshire 2022
Report of the Chief Executive Officer
1.0 Purpose of Report
1.1 To recommend to the Chief executive Officer, under emergency delegated powers, that he approve a £100k fee to Welcome to Yorkshire towards staging the Tour de Yorkshire in 2022, and in the event that Welcome to Yorkshire are unable to secure sufficient race sponsorship, a further fee of up to £100K for the event in North Yorkshire.
2.0 Background
2.1 Following on from the expiry of the Local Authorities and Police and Crime Panels (Coronavirus) (Flexibility of Local Authority and Police and Crime Panel Meetings) (England and Wales) Regulations 2020 (“the 2020 Regulations”), which allowed for committee meetings to be held remotely, the County Council resolved at its meeting on 5 May 2021 that, for the present time, Committee business should be continued via the Chief Executive Officer making urgent decisions that would previously have been made by the Council’s committees, under his emergency decision making powers in the Officers’ Delegation Scheme, in consultation with other Officers and Members as appropriate. The Committee’s views and recommendations will be reported to the Chief Executive Officer for him to take into account in taking the formal decisions.
2.2 The Tour de Yorkshire had established itself as a key event in the both the regional and national sporting calendar. The race was cancelled last year due to Covid but the race has been re-scheduled to take place in 2022.
2.3 As a result, event preparations now need to begin. The race will play a key role as an opportunity to aid economic recovery across the region and it is planned to be the first and largest non-ticketed mass participation event of its kind in the UK since the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020. In parallel, Welcome to Yorkshire are planning a County wide ‘Festival of Yorkshire’ to take place for a full week and the race itself will be the headline act in what will be a celebration of the whole county highlighting local food and drink, arts and culture, heritage and music.
2.4 The event will be therefore used as a key marketing opportunity to bring new visitors into the region to enjoy the many other festivals and other attractions across Yorkshire. The 2019 Tour de Yorkshire and Asda Tour de Yorkshire Women’s Race were viewed across the globe by a record-breaking audience of 28 million. Independent research showed the race boosted the Yorkshire economy by £60 million as 1.96 million spectators lined the routes over the four days of action between 2-5 May 2019. The race will therefore provide a welcome boost to many local businesses, many of whom will have suffered during Covid lockdowns. This is an increase of 124 per cent on the fourth edition viewing figures of 12.5 million in 2018.
2.5 The 2020 race will start and finish in the same host towns and cities as announced and intended in 2020. This comprises of:-
Day 1: Beverley to Redcar (Mens race only)
Day 2: Skipton to Leyburn (Mens and Womens race)
Day 3: Barnsley to Huddersfield (Mens and Womens race)
Day 4: Halifax to Leeds (Mens race only)
3.0 The Request from Welcome to Yorkshire
3.1 The County Council has been requested to provide a £100k fee towards the costs of staging the event in 2022 as has been the case in previous years. However there is a further request that a further fee of up to £100k is provided if Welcome to Yorkshire are unable to secure sufficient sponsorship, which would result in the total fee for the event being up to £200K.
3.2 This request has arisen as the Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) have indicated that they are no longer prepared to underwrite the sponsorship funding and will call upon Welcome to Yorkshire to provide any shortfall. Welcome to Yorkshire are unable to provide such a guarantee and have therefore called upon all those councils (nine as Craven and Richmondshire District Councils as well as the County Council given the two-tier nature) who are hosting a start / finish to contribute a further fee for the event in the event that insufficient sponsorship is received. The race will not proceed without a guarantee being in place.
3.3 A new team has been drawn together to lead the search for sponsorship by Welcome to Yorkshire and this team draws upon many credible business people. In addition, Welcome to Yorkshire are looking to move away from the previous approach to find a ‘high figure’ headline sponsor to act as the main rights holder of the race. The new strategy is to align with some of the societal values that have become increasingly important over the last year and could mean looking for businesses to be Equality, Sustainability, Mental Health and Diversity Partners. Welcome to Yorkshire have stated that, following what will have been a very difficult two years for all involved, the race needs to again be seen as a genuine celebration of Yorkshire as opposed to just a bike race. This will mean a much longer lead into the race with events celebrating the inherent Culture, Heritage, Arts, Craft, Food and Drink offering of the whole county with the race being the Headline act of 9 months of activation.
3.4 At this stage it is not possible to determine how much of the additional fee would be required but the approach set out, and the personnel involved, provides a high degree of assurance that there is a good plan. As a result, Welcome to Yorkshire feel it is “unlikely” that the additional fee of up to £100K will be required. Clearly, there will need to be some form of assessment of the effectiveness of the commercial sponsorship strategy following the 2022 event in order to inform future events.
4.0 Financial Implications
4.1 The race “fee” of £100k has already been provided for from previous commitments to fund previous cancelled races. This was originally generated from business rates surpluses and was “earmarked” for further economic development. No further funding needs to be provided for this element should the Executive recommend the Chief Executive Officer agree to this contribution.
4.2 The further fee of up to £100k may well not be required. However, should the Executive recommend the Chief Executive Officer agree to this request then it should be fully provided for and it is recommended that £100k is set-aside from the Strategic Capacity Unallocated Reserve and is released only as and when Welcome to Yorkshire make the final evidenced request.
5.0 Legal Implications
5.1 The fee payable to Welcome to Yorkshire is a contractual payment to the event organiser towards the delivery of the event and services received from Welcome to Yorkshire, therefore the payment is not considered to be a subsidy.
5.2 The event can be delivered by one organisation only, so is a public procurement is not required.
6.0 Environmental Implications
6.1 The event is to be run by Welcome to Yorkshire with ASO. They will lead on environmental matters but, as noted above, they are keen to promote sustainability.
7.0 Recommendations
7.1 That the Executive recommend to the Chief Executive Officer under his emergency delegated powers that he:
i. approves funding of £100k to Welcome to Yorkshire as a fee to staging the 2022 Tour de Yorkshire;
ii. approves the provision of a further fee of up to £100k in the event that Welcome to Yorkshire are unable to generate sufficient sponsorship for the 2022 event and that this provision is funded from the Strategic Capacity Unallocated; and
iii. delegates authority to the Corporate Director, Business & Environmental Services in consultation with the Corporate Director, Strategic Resources to make any payment to Welcome to Yorkshire which becomes due after appropriate due diligence is carried out.
Richard Flinton
Chief Executive
13 July 2021
Background Documents - None