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news
Cambridge (CC licensed by mariosp)UKIP slams Cambridge plans to spend money on Tour de France “parties”
The UKIP group on Cambridgeshire County Council has attacked the council’s plans for events to celebrate the Tour de France as a waste of money.
UKIP councillors say that funding community events to celebrate the race’s arrival cannot be justified while services are being axed, according to Cambridge News.
The council is offering grants for activities that “involve and motivate people to create a lasting and positive legacy”, but council bosses say the money comes from currently unallocated funds, and no extra money will be spent.
Councillor Paul Bullen, leader of the UKIP group on the council said: “I have serious concerns that some of the officers at the county council have been given delegated authority to spend money on a scheme like this which is not part of our statutory provision.
“This money could be spent on the frontline, doing what we have to do like looking after the old and vulnerable and young, not on some project we shouldn’t be contributing to at all.”
His colleague Cllr Peter Reeve said the council should not be “throwing money into having a party” when the Cromwell Museum in Huntingdon faced closure in a bid to save £20,000.
A county council spokesman said: “When Welcome to Yorkshire asked Cambridge to become part of their bid to host the third stage of the Grand Depart 2014, both Cambridge City Council and Cambridgeshire County Council made it clear we were happy to support the event but would not be making a financial contribution to the costs of it.
“This is the commitment we have made to our local taxpayers. We have always been open and clear with everyone involved in the event that this is our position.
“The cycle legacy small grant fund is to support activities or events linked to and inspired by cycling or Le Tour. The £20,000 fund comes from existing county budgets which are available to help local communities and uses monies from budgets that are currently unallocated – it is not additional funding for delivering the Tour.”
John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.
He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.
Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.
John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.
He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.
Latest Comments
- Rendel Harris 6 min 46 sec ago
It's next door to County Ups, which for obvious reasons isn't so popular with cyclists.
- JLasTSR 16 min 21 sec ago
I have three bikes I am fond of each of them and not one has cost me more than £400. In fact two cost £80 and the other originally cost my family ...
- mark1a 6 hours 10 min ago
Don't open at Edinburgh Fringe with that one.
- David9694 9 hours 50 min ago
Imagine writing such a pathetic, victim-ey article in a national newspaper.
- Oldfatgit 15 hours 26 min ago
I got something that'll beat you all .....
- chrisonabike 16 hours 9 min ago
Aggrieved motorists?...
- wtjs 18 hours 7 min ago
The fact that such self driving cars don't BMW/Audi drivers do exist is proof - as if it were needed - that Gods don't exist
- Johnny Rags 19 hours 1 min ago
Wouldn't generalisations about generations be, I don't know, "generationalisations"?
- ErnieC 20 hours 5 min ago
No chance of that ever being a human being.
- Rendel Harris 1 day 16 hours ago
No idea if Cancellara was using a motor or not, I hope not as I greatly enjoyed him as a rider, but the tech was certainly available, I can...
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22 comments
Not the first time UKIP have been accused of race hatred....
Very good
http://i862.photobucket.com/albums/ab186/gleeb73/My%20gif%20collection/a...
We Geordies are the lucky ones, two big events on our doorstep. I am booked up for TDF Grand Depart and The Commonwealth Games road races
Coming from an Irish family I can't tell you just how amusing I find it that money being spent on cycling instead of a museum for Oliver Cromwell is annoying the bollocks off UKIP.
Whatever the whys and wherefores of UKIP policies, I find that I'm in agreement with them on this matter. Gkam' comment is spot on. The economic benefits of Cambridge hosting the Stage 3 depart are likely to be marginal at best given the costs.
Did these idiots see London during the Olympics?
I happened to accidentally come across the Women's 20km walk whilst going to meet up with a friend. There were crowds 10 deep at the barriers all the way around the course.
All the other free events I went to (Women's triathlon, both road races, the TT day) were similarly mental
In summary, as a nation we fucking love sport, especi4ally free events like this. Cambridge UKIP can go shove their petty objections up their hairy hoops.
I totally agree, the government had to bail out Yorkshire's bid, why pump more money into it when services are being cut....
Except that's not ukip's real objection is it? They're a bunch of anti-tax anti-state libertarian fantasists who couldn't give a monkeys about public services, especially to 'the vulnerable'.
The idea of celebrating the arrival of, not just foreigners, but foreigners on PUSH BIKES of all things must have burst some blood vessels at ukip HQ. That's got to be worth the price of a few meals on wheels surely?
The Govt had already budgeted money towards the bid which Scotland put in, Yorkshire got it so it seems reasonable to move the money already budgeted to the winning bid £20m investment for minimum £100m return seems a good bet though
However, it was the Scottish government that had allocated the funding from their devolved administration budget. Nothing to do with Westminster
Clegg was asked by a reporter if funding would be available, he said yes. I struggle to see how anyone has "bailed" the Yorkshire bid. tbh anything has got to be better than watching the constant bore of the slight ramp of box hill.
They were bailed out, they put in a badly prepared plan, they didn't have the correct funding in place to put forward their plan, then they went cap in had to the government for funding....total crap.
Ok, they will go on about the economic benefit...but that's to ONE area of the country, yet we are all paying for it and the government won't get their £10 million back from the Yorkshire bid....
Sounds like sour grapes to me, there is no evidence of this just press releases from a bitter Westminster quangos who backed and funded the Scotland to London bid to win Scottish votes and too keep the London centric nobbers happy spreading lies trying to take over Yorkshires bid.
Just a shame Tour de Yorkshire isn' hosting all three stages.
Godfrey! The blasted French are coming and rumour has it they've got Romanians hiding in their saddle bags. Fetch the piano wire and get the chap from the New Forest on the blower, there's work to do.
Yeah, go back to France where you belong, bloody cyclists! We can't be having with this sort of thing.
Cambridge has got a pretty good deal, hosting the race without paying for it. Admittedly, they get Monday morning, whereas Yorkshire gets the weekend.
Still, UKIP are having to work pretty hard to find something to complain about. They are a miserable bunch of badgers.
Between positive comments from mainstream politicians, and negative comments from UKIP, I'll take the latter every time.
Yeah, that's the kind of people right-wingers usually care so much about. No, wait ... the other thing.
Seems like the positives of hosting the Tour way outweigh any costs associated
well that just shows the narrow mindedness of Ukip..the event will bring a lot more money into the area than it will take out
Tour de France offers the Cambridge public to witness the greatest cycling event in the world.
Who wouldn't agree with it, they witnessed the Olympic torch so they should accept another worldwide event.