Tour de Yorkshire must be self-funding; no more taxpayer bailouts – Yorkshire Post Letters

I READ with much interest the article and the subsequent letter about Welcome to Yorkshire chief executive, James Mason, ‘going cap in hand’ for more funding from local authorities to cover the marketing and operational cost of staging the ‘iconic’ Tour de Yorkshire cycle race. Mr Mason says that he is concerned that there may be a shortfall from potential sponsors.

We read that Yorkshire’s local authorities will be increasing council tax by up to 4.3 per cent, and at the same time will be providing fewer frontline services, so why should our town halls vote for doubling the funding for staging this event in their communities?

I agree that this event, in past years, has brought increased day visitors to communities along the route, but Welcome to Yorkshire need to be working harder in obtaining funding from sponsors – or reduce the length of the route, and save on cost of hiring road barriers, before going to local authorities to bail them out.

If the Tour de Yorkshire 
has such a sound economic case at this time, why doesn’t Mr Mason seek further funding 
from Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden as part of Government plans to boost staycations and tourism?

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