£1.7m Tour de France backlash
Edinburgh Councillors need to 'take back control' from officials, one has claimed, amid a row over calls to spend of £1.7 million of council reserves on the Tour de France.
In a report published before Thursday's full council meeting, officers had asked councillors to sign off on £1.7 for the Tour de France, saying council political group leaders had agreed to it.
However, at the full council meeting, several group leaders spoke out to say that they had not approved the spend, and that the last they'd heard of Tour de France planning was in October.
One councillor said the move was 'unacceptable', while another admitted they did not yet know how the spend would benefit the city.
The decision on approving the £1.7m Tour de France spend – and £2m in other reserve use for other issues – has now been pushed back to a committee meeting next week.
Conservative group leader, councillor Iain Whyte, said: 'We were given some information. We were not given all the information.
'We agreed that officers should keep working on it, but I would have expected that to come to committee.'
SNP group leader, Councillor Simita Kumar, expressed the same sentiment.
The report for councillors said that they intended for the £1.7m spend to be replenished from income from the city's upcoming visitor levy.
Former Liberal Democrat leader Kevin Lang shared the confusion of the other group leaders.
But, he also clarified that, in October, officers had explained that the use of visitor levy money to backfill the £1.7m was intended to be extra income brought in by the event.
It was announced in March that Edinburgh would host the start of the 2027 running of the men's Tour de France race.
It will be the first time that the race visits the city, and with the women's race set to start somewhere else in the UK, the first time that both the men's and women's races started in the same country besides France.
SNP councillor Kate Campbell said: 'There is very little explanation really of why we're making those allocations.
'Group leaders I've spoken to do not have recollection of making a decision on this.
'We've had no reports to councillors, no notes to committee, about the value we're getting from £1.7m for the Tour de France.
'It's a huge amount of money. We really don't know what the benefit to the city is.'
Conservative councillor Phil Doggart said: 'Much as I have respect for my convener, and much as I respect the other conveners, can I just say that group leaders are not a decision making body.
'At the very least, this should have come to F&R last week. We could have discussed it.
'This is unacceptable. We are the council. So let's take back control of the council from the officers. We make decisions.'
Councillors agreed with a motion put forward by the city's Labour administration, which saw the matter pushed back to the next meeting of the city's Finance and Resources Committee.
By Joseph Sullivan Local Democracy Reporter
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