£50,000 spent on failed cup bid

CORNWALL COUNCIL spent more than £50,000 supporting the failed bid to bring the FIFA World Cup to Plymouth, it has been revealed.

A request submitted under the Freedom of Information Act to County Hall revealed that leader of the council, Alec Robertson, agreed to provide £50,000 from the contingency fund through the leisure service to support Plymouth’s bid to be a venue for the 2018 World Cup.

Plymouth was accepted as one of the proposed venues but the bid to bring the tournament to England failed, with FIFA instead choosing to award the finals to Russia. As well as providing £50,000 in funding council staff also spent 97 hours working on supporting the bid.

Councillor Alex Folkes, Liberal Democrat Shadow Cabinet member for libraries, leisure and culture, said: “While, of course, it would have been a great thing to get the World Cup in England and matches played in Plymouth, at a time when Cornwall Council is finding such harsh budget cuts, including to leisure services, the better use of this money would have been supporting leisure centres such as Camelford Leisure Centre and Bude Sea Pool which had been under threat.

Scrutiny

“This really does seem like a waste money.

“I am horrified that it has taken a freedom of information request from the West Briton to bring this information to light. This sort of thing should have been out in the open long before now and subject to proper scrutiny.”

Commenting on officers working on the bid he added: “That would be another couple of thousand pounds as well – officers in our leisure department have better things to do in supporting our excellent leisure services.”

In a statement Cornwall Council said: “It was the leader’s decision to support the Plymouth World Cup bid from the contingency fund, co-operating with neighbouring authorities to support a bid which, had it been successful, would have brought considerable benefit to all involved.”