Calls to take Games east

CALLS are being made to bring the Commonwealth Games to East Yorkshire after the disappointment over the Tour de France.

The race in 2014 will see riders crossing South, West and North Yorkshire, but miss out the East Riding.

But George McManus, parliamentary spokesman for the Beverley and Holderness Labour Party, said the area “should dust itself down and try to sell itself even harder” with a joint bid by Hull and East Yorkshire for the Games in 2022.

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Mr McManus said: “I come from Glasgow originally and if you had suggested that it host the Games only 10 years ago you would have faced a lot of scepticism, and yet 2014 will see Glasgow as the host city.

“The Games of 2022 will attract competitors from 71 countries. We should see the Games as a great opportunity to showcase East Yorkshire as a place to invest, live and visit.”

Mr McManus said Glasgow had managed to break old cultural attitudes which had seen the city traditionally defer to Edinburgh, which had hosted the Games twice.

However portfolio holder for sport in Hull Coun Terry Geraghty said it was an impossible dream as there were no venues locally capable of hosting the events and they couldn’t compete with the likes of London, which has the facilities in place following the Olympics.

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Coun Geraghty said: “I don’t think we have the resources to do it; you’d have to have the venues. We would have to have the whole range of international swimming pools, ice hockey, running tracks. We are talking about a lot of money, and I don’t think you could go down that road with the cuts in local government. It would be an impossible dream.”

However, he said, the city still hoped to put in its second bid for City of Culture 2017. He said: “I think this time we will really go for it.”