Own goal over stadium finance

It has also helped to transform the fortunes of Hull City and Hull FC. Their run-down former grounds, at Boothferry Park and The Boulevard respectively, were totally unsuitable for top-flight professional sport.

Without the foresight and financial backing of Hull Council, the KC Stadium would not have been built, or become the focus of the community, in a city with above-average levels of social deprivation.

This goes without saying.

What is unacceptable, however, is the extent to which Hull taxpayers – households whose incomes are among the lowest in the country – are subsidising the venue at a time when football, in particular, has enjoyed unparalleled financial riches.

It simply cannot be right that the local authority has been receiving as little as 2.50 a week in lease payments when an injury-blighted Hull City footballer is paid up to 45,000 a week. Such economics do not serve the public interest.

It also cannot be right that the council has to pay the Superstadium Management Company 72,000 a year to rent office space at the sports facility that it funded. There is no logic to this.

And it cannot be right that the SMC – and not the council – keeps the revenue generated by the parking charges levied on publicly-owned land. Again, this ill-serves residents.

Though the deal, signed nearly a decade ago, reflected the circumstances of Hull sport at the time,it should have been made the subject of regular reviews to take account of changing financial fortunes. Instead, there's now the absurd prospect, in these austere times, of these arrangements remaining in place for 50 years, even though Hull Council is bracing itself for major cuts in the week that details behind a 185m accounting error emerged.

While the legal undertakings in this one-sided deal may be water-tight, this should not prevent the SMC, Hull City and Hull FC from volunteering to re-negotiate their financial undertakings so that they adequately reflect the contribution made by taxpayers, rather than continuing to use the public's benevolence to

line the pockets of over-paid and under-performing players.

This has never been an acceptable use of council tax money. And it never should be.