Harrogate Borough Council's cabinet approves £250k Tour de Yorkshire spending

Harrogate Borough Council's Cabinet has unanimously approved the £250k spending for the town to host either a start of finish for the Tour de Yorkshire 2017.
Marcel Kittell wins the first stage of the 2014 Tour de France in Harrogate from Peter Sagan after Mark Cavendish crashed at the bottom of Parliament Street.  5 July 2014. Picture Bruce RollinsonMarcel Kittell wins the first stage of the 2014 Tour de France in Harrogate from Peter Sagan after Mark Cavendish crashed at the bottom of Parliament Street.  5 July 2014. Picture Bruce Rollinson
Marcel Kittell wins the first stage of the 2014 Tour de France in Harrogate from Peter Sagan after Mark Cavendish crashed at the bottom of Parliament Street. 5 July 2014. Picture Bruce Rollinson

Last month, Harrogate was confirmed as being included in next year’s Tour de France route with the town hosting either a start or finish of the race.

However, in order to do this, a £250k cost had to be approved, including a £100k hosting fee and £150k worth of event management costs including a fan park on the Stray and the cost of clearing up afterwards.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The Cabinet unanimously approved the spending and the leader of Harrogate Borough Council, Coun Richard Cooper, said the race will be beneficial for the local economy.

He said: “It’s a lot of money but the Tour de Yorkshire brought £60m into the Yorkshire economy in places where it started and finished.

“It will be televised in more than 180 countries and last year 11.4m people watched it. This was more than double its first year figures so this shows how much it’s growing.

“People understand that if you went to improve our local economy with hotels full of visitors and people employed in those businesses. If we want independent traders to continue we have to give people reasons to come to Harrogate.”

The Tour de Yorkshire will be the second world class cycle event to be hosted in Harrogate since 2014 with the district in “pole position” to play a part in the 2019 UCI Road World Championships.