Praise for Yorkshire’s Tour de France preparations

Jean-Etienne Amaury, the president of race organiser Amaury Sport Organisation, said he was impressed with the ongoing work in Yorkshire ahead of the Tour’s ‘Grand Départ’ in July 2014.

He spoke at the Y 13 tourism conference in Leeds the day after the Government announced plans to step in and provide £10 million in funding for the UK stages of the race.

The future of the event, which is expected to provide a huge boost to Yorkshire’s economy, was thrown into doubt when organisers’ initial bid for public funding was rejected this week and Sports Minister Hugh Robertson criticised their plans.

But Mr Amaury insisted he was happy with the work done by tourism agency Welcome to Yorkshire and chief executive Gary Verity, who he said was one of the “deciding factors” in awarding the Grand Départ to the region.

He said: “We met three years ago, the first encounter was very convincing. The scenery in Yorkshire is magnificent so it was a very compelling argument. Obviously we are very happy with Gary and his team.”

When asked about what he had seen of preparations for next year, he said: “It looks fantastic so far. We expect great enthusiasm here in Yorkshire for the Tour de France.”

Mr Verity, whose organisation is responsible for delivering the stages of the Tour de France held in the UK, said he was not worried about securing the funding despite Mr Robertson’s critical assessment of the bid.

And he criticised politicians for claiming credit for the apparent U-turn, saying: “It is funny how the tour has suddenly developed many more parents.”

He told the Yorkshire Post: “It was made clear to me when I was at the Cabinet meeting in Leeds that this is something the Government wants to get behind.

“It is a no-brainer. This is the biggest sporting event in the world every year and the biggest event in the UK since the Olympics. It is very important that we as a nation support that.

“David Cameron saw that and so did the Deputy Prime Minister. With the two of them supporting it, it was always going to happen.”

During an interview on-stage at yesterday’s conference at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds, gold medal-winning Olympic triathlete Alistair Brownlee said he had been watching the Tour “since I was eight years old”.

The Dewsbury-born athlete brought laughter from the audience when he said some of the funding should be spent repairing Yorkshire’s pot-holed roads.

He said: “It seems amazing it is going to pass my front door, and go past many of the pot-holed roads. They are going to have to spend some of the £10 million they have got on Tarmac.”

It was revealed last week that councils in Yorkshire need more than £95m each to patch up the region’s pothole-riddled roads, which motorists have rated as the worst in the country.

The first two stages of the Tour de France will take place in Yorkshire next July, with a third stage planned between Cambridge and London. The Yorkshire bid succeeded against competition from cities including Florence and Edinburgh.

Skipton and Ripon MP Julian Smith led a delegation of Conservative MPs from the region to meet Culture Secretary Maria Miller on Wednesday after news of UK Sport’s decision to reject Yorkshire’s bid for funding emerged.

In a letter to Leeds City Council chief executive Tom Riordan, Sports Minister Hugh Robertson attacked the way Welcome to Yorkshire hopes to use funding for the event to market Yorkshire on the world stage.

“UK Sport cannot provide significant amounts of funding for the Welcome to Yorkshire tourism strategy,” Mr Robertson wrote. “This is entirely outside of their scope, which is to deliver first class sporting events in the UK.

“Neither they, nor I, are convinced this event needs an expensive marketing strategy.”