MPs told 2014 Tour De France has not boosted Yorkshire tourism

Over 300,000 people lined the streets of the Harrogate district for the 2014 Tour De France Grand Depart, but MPs have been told the event has provided no lasting benefits to the region.

The Grand Depart saw riders given a royal send-off by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry at Harewood House.

Almost 200 cyclists took part, racing through Masham, Ripon and Killinghall before a sprint finish in Harrogate. It memorably saw Mark Cavendish crash off his bike on Parliament Street.

Since the event, other major cycling events have been held in the Harrogate district, including the 2019 UCI Cycling Championships, which has divided the town ever since.

At an MPs select committee on Tuesday, Caroline Cooper Charles, chief executive of Screen Yorkshire, which champions the film and TV industry in Yorkshire, gave evidence about promoting the UK as a tourist destination.

Asked by Labour MP Clive Efford if the Grand Depart had a lasting impact on tourism in the county, she replied:

“In all honesty, I don’t think it did.

“It certainly put the spotlight on Yorkshire and people came to see the race. Probably for a short amount of time hotels were booked up and restaurants were full. In terms of long term impact no, I wouldn’t say so.”

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In 2014, Gary Verity, then chief executive of Welcome to Yorkshire, the tourism body that played a major role in bringing the event to Yorkshire, said the event “will have a lasting impact on visitor numbers and businesses for years and years to come”.

But Ms Cooper Charles said Yorkshire as a county had failed to capitalise on the success of the event.

A Harrogate Borough Council report published in 2015 claimed £19m was spent in the district thanks to the race. A Welcome to Yorkshire report claimed £100m was spent across the county.

Ms Cooper Charles said:

“Once the bikes are gone, what’s left? It’s the roads.

“In terms of a campaign to sell the rest of Yorkshire around the Tour de Yorkshire leg, i don’t think that happened. If it happened there would have been a longer-term impact.”

The Stray Ferret asked Welcome to Yorkshire to respond but we did not receive a response by the time of publication.

Strayside Sunday: bailing out Welcome to Yorkshire was the right thing to do

Strayside Sunday is our weekly political opinion column. It is written by Paul Baverstock, former Director of Communications for the Conservative Party. 

Gary Verity once bestrode the Yorkshire scene. Chief Executive of Welcome to Yorkshire, God’s own county’s tourism promotion body, Verity succeeded in bringing the 2014 Grand Depart of the Tour de France to Leeds. Glorious weather bathed riders in sunshine as they rode through our unmatched scenery, watched by spectators ten and twenty deep.  Such was its success that Verity was knighted for his efforts and the subsequent Tour de Yorkshire became a permanent fixture on our calendar, ensuring an annual pay day for the local economy (although Covid-19’s long shadow has caused its postponement to 2022).

All was not as it seemed.  Behind the scenes, the mercurial Mr Verity was accused of creating a culture of bullying, had to attend behavioural management counselling and eventually left Welcome to Yorkshire on health grounds under the darkest of clouds, facing, among other things, allegations of misuse of funds.  To spend more time with his sheep, no doubt.

In the aftermath, two investigations into the management of the body cost almost £500,000, a financial shock that would have been hard to bear even in good times.  On top of this came Covid-19 and a consequent £1m collapse in the business rate and membership fee income upon which it ordinarily relies.  All of this required the body to ask for a £1.4m bailout from contributing councils across the county.  Harrogate Borough Council is the latest to help, pitching in £31,000  to enable Welcome to Yorkshire to continue to “support tourism in Yorkshire and the Harrogate district at a time when it is needed the most.”

We are blessed to live in this beautiful county and it is important to bring its joys to the world.  Bailing out Welcome to Yorkshire is the right thing to do, but let’s hope that the money from Harrogate and other councils across the ridings (and South Yorkshire) comes with the oversight and governance that public money warrants and which, sadly, was so lacking during Verity’s tenure.  Yorkshire is a brilliant brand, the challenge for Welcome to Yorkshire now is to rebuild its own reputation to match.

Another mercurial bully on his way out this week is Dominic “Barnard Castle” Cummings.  Back in the day Cummings worked as Director of Strategy for Iain Duncan Smith.  His volatility was legend in Conservative Party circles and, during his five months in post he managed to offend almost every member of shadow cabinet.  During his brief tenure he introduced IDS to the plight of those in our inner city sink estates.  His “help the vulnerable” campaign exposed Duncan Smith and the Conservatives to the horrible reality of life for some in Gallowgate and elsewhere in contemporary Britain.  It made a lasting impression on IDS and informed his desire to reform the welfare state while Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.  Now lost in the mists of time we should remember that the reforms were initially welcomed and praised by civic society organisations and even the Labour opposition.

Cummings left the party having told Michael Howard to go forth and multiply during a typically foul mouthed and shouty display around the shadow cabinet table.  Dominic was then and remains a disruptor in the fullest sense of the word.  In fairness, Michael Howard didn’t much like advisors, nor did he in any way agree with those of us who felt that fairness needed to become a central pillar of party policy in the post-Thatcher era.  A point he made crystal clear when he fired me a day or two after becoming leader when IDS was ousted.

Cummings is a formidable campaigner, as his Vote Leave triumph demonstrated.  But he is simply not temperamentally suited to government.  In his time in government (can it only be a year?) he wanted to focus on three things only; getting Brexit done, the levelling up agenda and reforming the civil service.  Like the rest of us he hadn’t bargained on what Harold Macmillan called “events dear boy, events.”  Covid-19 has so consumed affairs of state that winning the Brexit peace, balancing our economy and transforming Whitehall have become secondary.  The pandemic has robbed this government of the time and space it needs to pursue its agenda and, by definition, is so unpredictable that it makes it lays waste to the relevance and longevity of government by slogan.

In my experience many MPs have a pathological need to be loved, or at the very least to feel they are needed.  Warm and cuddly our Dom is not.  Contempt and disdain are more his style.  Given that and the manoeuvring and jealousy inherent in the political game, he is no doubt responsible at least in part for the growing sense of disquiet among parliamentary Conservatives.  Backbench Conservative MP’s are delighted he is going and his scalp may well buy the Prime Minister more time with the restive.  The irony of course is that for at least one faction, Jake Berry’s Northern Research Group, Cummings was the driving intellectual force behind the levelling up agenda in which they believe, and upon which, their parliamentary futures rest.  His departure damages their cause.  Be careful, they say, what you wish for.

That’s my Strayside Sunday.

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County council ‘stands by’ under-threat Welcome to Yorkshire

North Yorkshire County Council has said it will stand by under-threat Welcome to Yorkshire after the organisation revealed it requires £1.4 million to survive amid the coronavirus crisis.

A year since the troubled tourism body was marred by scandal, WTY wrote to council bosses across Yorkshire last week requesting financial support to stay afloat – of which around £450,000 is needed from authorities in North Yorkshire.

The tourism organisation was deprived of £1 million in business rates after councils in North and West Yorkshire saw a loss of income due to the pandemic. A further £400,000 shortfall was created when WTY suspended its membership fees.

Both North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire councils agreed in October 2019 to give WTY £1 million of public money to continue operating after it was suggested it would be more “cost effective” than closing the organisation down. Now, the body finds itself asking for more taxpayer money to survive.

A meeting of the tourism body’s board was held in private last week to discuss the financial gap, despite current chairman, Peter Box, promising to hold meetings in public when he was appointed last year.

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It comes after WTY was hit by controversy when former boss, Sir Gary Verity, resigned in March 2019 on health grounds but faced allegations of bullying and inappropriately claiming expenses.

Two inquiries carried out after Sir Gary’s resignation cost the tourism body £482,500, and former boss, Paul Scriven, told the House of Lords it had a “culture of toxicity” and misused public funds.

Investigators looked at expenses worth around £900,000, of which £26,000 were of a personal nature. Sir Gary has denied all allegations of wrongdoing.

North Yorkshire County Council says it will stand beside Welcome to Yorkshire as it faces a financial challenge.

Now, WTY has found itself in a financial hole amid the pandemic and has turned to local councils to bail it out.

Two authorities, Ryedale and Hambleton, have already said they will not pay their share to support the organisation.

Both the county council and Harrogate Borough Council confirmed they had received the letter from WTY and would continue to work to determine what financial support could be offered.

Gareth Dadd, deputy leader of the county council and executive member for finance, said:

“We are working with other councils across the region to work through funding support for Welcome to Yorkshire.

“We put great value on the very positive work the company has done, which has enormously enhanced the Yorkshire brand.

“Prior to the pandemic we were welcoming record numbers of tourists to North Yorkshire and the visitor and hospitality economy here employs tens of thousands of people bringing around £1.9 billion to the county’s economy.

“Now is the moment we need to get behind the tourist industry – so we are standing beside Welcome to Yorkshire as one of the key agents to make this happen.”

In a statement following its meeting last week, Mr Box said the body required further discussions with local authorities over financial support.

He said: “There’s more work to do before we can agree a way ahead. We will continue to talk to council leaders about financial support and the options that flow from that.

“The response we’ve had from leaders over the past few weeks has been encouraging and we were able to have a constructive discussion at this afternoon’s Extraordinary Board Meeting. We will have further talks before we plot a way forward.

“I’m grateful for the support we’ve already had from council leaders, and others, across Yorkshire. If we are going to deliver a successful economic and social recovery from the pandemic, tourism will have to play a crucial role in that.

“Without a thriving tourism industry, there won’t be the kind of recovery we all want to see in Yorkshire.”