Taxpayers foot the bill

This is from Journal Live, coming from Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Interesting that regions have been told to fund a three day event to celebrate the Games, will receive no central funding for it, and, with reduced funds available from the Lottery due to repeated raids on it by the IOC, have no chance of obtaining funding from that source. If were one of the worthy burghers of that grey city on the Tyne, where the thoughts are usually based on sagacity and plain speech, I would consider making a brief two fingered gesture to central government, the IOC and London:

TAXPAYERS in the North East will have to fund the region’s Olympic celebrations as the Government refuses to hand over any cash for a series of cultural events across the UK, it emerged last night.

Critics have accused the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) of “forcing” the region to celebrate the London games as it emerged the bill will be handed to councils.

After repeatedly raiding lottery charity cash previously destined for the North East and other regions to fund the London games, the Government has now landed city officials with a bill for organising celebrations to mark the hand over of the Olympic torch this September. Council officers already struggling with much reduced culture budgets thanks to a tight three-year spending settlement have been told they must hold a three-day series of events to mark the start of the UK’s Olympic preparations this September.

The London organisers have promised the games will have an impact on every part of the country, and appointed eight creative programmers to ensure events take place under a project dubbed the Cultural Olympiads.

But in what some have labelled a sign of the Government’s real level of commitment, there has been no funding provided for the first of these events, which includes plans for cities such as Newcastle to simply “make some noise”.

Olympic bosses have also banned regional organisers from using the controversial Olympic logo, itself criticised as a waste of money.

Pauline Allen, executive member for culture, leisure and customer service, called on the Government to offer “real financial support to the rest of the nation, not just London”.
Ms Allen said: “We’ve been quite taken aback by the Government’s approach to this.
“There is a very real feeling that they messed up on the planning for the London games and now the regions are having to pay for this.

“We want the games to be a success but they are really jeopardising support for this by refusing to put the measures in place to make it a truly national event.

“The funding for these games has been a disaster from the start, they have no intention of providing us with a grant for this, we have lost funding in the North East due to Olympics raids on the lottery funds and now we are told to ‘make a noise’ about the impact the games will have on the country. It is about time that the Government showed that it wants to involve people in Newcastle and the rest of the UK because right now it looks like they want London games and that they simply do not appreciate us.

“I and everyone at the council really wants Newcastle to benefit and do this right, it’s just a shame the Government doesn’t seem to want to show its support with financial help.”
Newcastle North MP Doug Henderson said the matter should be dealt with by the Olympic Committee and added “it is not something that should be forced on to taxpayers”.

Blaydon MP Dave Anderson, said he was hopeful the Government and North East councils could work together on the build up to the games.

“I think we have great potential, especially in Newcastle and Gateshead, to do some wonderful events in the build up to the games.

“I am hopeful that if we can put something impressive together that maybe we can ask for at least some match-funding for this.”

The Department of Culture, Media and Sport was asked if it agreed the region was being forced to pay for the cost of celebrating the games but a press officer failed to get back for comment.