Council gives speedway project another £85k
BOSSES BLASTED AS ‘RECKLESS’ FOR ADDING TO £7M ALREADY HANDED OVER
TOWN hall bosses have been slammed for ‘sinking’ another £85,000 into a loss-making speedway project that has already seen more than £7m in council investment.
The council’s ruling Labour group have been branded ‘reckless’ with public money by the opposition after agreeing to give the latest franchise at Belle Vue’s National Speedway Stadium a series of public grants, little more than a year after writing off hundreds of thousands of pounds of previous investment.
It has also emerged that the council-built venue has failed to repay any of the £5.25m loaned to it by the town hall for its construction.
Liberal Democrat councillors now say spending on speedway has gone too far - and that the authority would be better off using the latest money to help homeless people or refugees.
But Belle Vue Speedway say the council investment is ‘for projects that on approval of sound business plans will provide education, training and job opportunities.’
Town hall also defended the latest investment, saying that the city has ‘a strong track record of bringing forward nationally important sports facilities’ and that Belle Vue is the best speedway stadium in the country.
They added that the £85k comes from money ‘set aside to support the regeneration of East Manchester and will not have any knock-on impact on other budgets.’ The National Speedway Stadium was completed in 2016 as part of the council’s push for sporting excellence in east Manchester. It cost the council £6.3m for the speedway element, with the rest for various additional uses including other sports, car parking and public realm. But just a few months after its opening in 2016, the town hall became embroiled in a row with the stadium’s first franchise. Eventually that cost the town hall £126k in legal fees, as well as £400k to fix a faulty track and £200,000 in bad debt that had to be written off. In March last year a second franchise, Belle Vue Speedway 2017 Ltd (BVSL), took over the lease instead, hoping to make it profitable. However a report tabled to councillors shows that not only has BVSL yet to turn a profit, but it may not do so before 2020. It highlights continued uncertainty over the national sport, a need to increase attendance by 10pc and ongoing negotiations over TV rights with BT Sport. “Due to the limited information and the contractualobligations... BVSL made alos sin year one of operating,” says the report.
“However it has prepared a business plan which seeks to reach a sustainable position by the end of 2019, at which point it would propose to consider a longer term agreement for the use of the stadium.” BVSL have now requested council funding in order to help its new business plan.
According to the report, BVSL has requested £15k for a new advertising screen on the outside of the stadium, £20k to improve the ventilation in the stadium’s food kiosks, both of which the council says will benefit other users of the stadium aside from the resident Belle Vue Aces speedway team, as well as bringing in revenue more generally.
The franchise has also asked for £30k towards the development of a new speedway academy to train up students in racing and related skills such as bike mechanics.
A further investment of up to £20k would be spent on sponsoring local residents to get stewarding qualifications, which the council says will benefit the community as well as the stadium’s operations.
However the Liberal Democrats, whose councillor Richard Kilpatrick was the only member to vote against the investment at the town hall’s latest resources meeting, said: “I absolutely support the principle of ensuring a thriving local business economy but unfortunately this has proven to be a failing initiative on more than one occasion. This is another example of the kind of reckless decisions that are made without a strong opposition on the council”, he said, adding that ‘we cannot afford to sink any more money into a business that shows no signs of growth.’
The council admitted that none of its initial £5.25m construction loan – which was meant to be repaid through rental income – has so far been recouped. It will consider whether any of that has to be permanently written off ‘once BVSL’s long-term sustainability has been determined,’ it said.
The council does not anticipate ‘any further financial support for speedway in the city beyond this,’ added a spokesman.
Coun Luthfur Rahman, executive member for schools, culture and leisure, said Belle Vue Speedway 2017 Ltd, which took over the running of the club last year, are a new company ‘who inherited a difficult position’ and are ‘demonstrating real progress.’