Council should not waste money on tainted Tour de Yorkshire - Yorkshire Post letters

So CRAVEN District Council’s £180,000 bid for Skipton to be a host venue for Welcome to Yorkshire’s 2020 Tour de Yorkshire has been accepted.

Tour de Yorkshire Ride 2020: route, dates and how to enter

I must admit that the fact that the council had decided to make the bid had passed me by. The last thing I had heard was that the council had put on hold making a decision while the investigations into Welcome to Yorkshire were being carried out.

I would have thought that following the private company’s breathtaking misuse of public money unearthed by the investigations – and the fact that a police investigation is still ongoing – no self-respecting council would touch this tainted event with a bargepole and not a penny of taxpayers’ money should be spent on it.

Indeed where is the money coming from and if Craven District Council has the money to spend why is it not being spent on maintaining or improving local services for local taxpayers?

“Do we need a bike race?”: What you really think of the Tour de Yorkshire

We are repeatedly told that the Tour de Yorkshire is watched by tens of millions of people and brings in tens of millions of pounds to the county – says who? Where is the hard evidence or independent reports to back up these claims – or are they another example of “fake news”?

Finally, if Craven District Council wants to find the money for the bid without cost to the local taxpayer, I suggest it abolishes the post of the chief executive – who according to the Taxpayers’ Alliance was paid £131,326 for 2017/18, comprising a basic salary of £98,848, a £5,000 bonus, compensation of £7,823 and pension money of £19,655 – as Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council are doing.