The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
T in the Park:
Culture Secretary told to come clean on £150,000 grant.
The Culture Secretary has been blasted for a lack of transparency over a £150,000 grant to the organisers of T in the Park.
Fiona Hyslop was told by MSPs to come clean on how the profit-making company DF Concerts spent the state aid.
But her attempt to draw a line under the issue by publishing the firm’s breakdown of spending was ridiculed for being heavily redacted.
Liam McArthur, the Scottish Liberal Democrats MSP and culture committee member, said the public is “none the wiser over why a company which generated record pre-tax profits of £6.2 million one year required £150,000 of state aid the next”.
He said: “£150,000 was paid out to a company to cover planning and venue hire costs for an event that had already taken place after the intervention of a former top SNP aide. We are no closer today to understanding why. This is simply not good enough.”
The figures relating to actual operation costs borne by the company from the move were completely blacked out in a freedom of information response.
The payment attracted further controversy because of the involvement of a former SNP aide who set up a meeting between Ms Hyslop and DF Concerts, who she was working for at the time.
The Scottish Government says the sum was handed over to help with the festival’s move to Strathallan in Perthshire and protect one of the country’s most important cultural events.
A Scottish Government spokeswoman: “We are satisfied with the information that DF Concerts and Events have provided and have verified that the grant was used in accordance with the terms under which it was provided, to assist with operational costs related to the transition of the T in the Park event to its new site at Strathallan.
“The only information redacted is identified as being of a commercially sensitive nature.
“The funding was provided to protect the future staging in Scotland of one of our most popular cultural events and the significant economic and other benefits it delivers.
“It is not unusual for the Scottish Government to provide grants to profitable companies to safeguard Scottish jobs of encourage economic impact.”
DF Concerts have said the costs of moving the festival from Balado to Strathallan Castle were “close to £3 million”.