Examination of Witnesses (Questions 280
- 286)
THURSDAY 27 JANUARY 2000
MR DEREK
CASEY, MR
TREVOR BROOKING
CBE AND MRS
BRIGID SIMMONDS
280. Lastly, can you tell me about your future
expenditure on Crystal Palace and how this would be affected by
funding for a new and separate project at Crystal Palace?
(Mr Casey) I mentioned the fact that athletics has
got these four areas to consider. One of the issues that has come
forward is that Bromley have put forward an application for a
major redevelopment of Crystal Palace, which we have been considering.
I think that what we are trying to do is to find the right balance
at Crystal Palace between community use and use of Crystal Palace
for top-level training, and not just for athletics but for swimming
and other events as well. It would be fair to say, I think, that
as we have been asked to look at the question of athletics generally
and athletics in London, a final decision on Crystal Palace is
caught up in those areas. I think the Council's view at the moment
is that Crystal Palace has got an important role to play in London
and for athletics, and we will be bearing that in mind in terms
of the final decision.
281. What sort of bid are we talking about from
the Lottery funding for the Crystal Palace development?
(Mr Casey) The bid that has come forward from Bromley
is somewhere between £30 million and £35 million for
the total redevelopment of the site, which of course is part of
a wider regeneration of the whole of Crystal Palace.
(Mrs Simmonds) It is not only for athletics, there
is also the other part.
Mr Maxton
282. Can I just say that when we were in Australia,
oddly enough the thing that struck me and the one that struck
me most was not the stadium, it was the fact that on any one weekend
70 per cent of the people of Australia take part in some form
of physical exercise. Is not that surely where the money should
be going? Are we not obsessed with building stadiums and that
type of big facility, rather than looking at participation and
people taking part in sport?
(Mr Casey) I think we would be concerned if this was
all we were doing, but I think it would be fair to say that the
vast majority of the Lottery funding is going into community projects,
and community projects which often cost less than £100,000,
to make sure that they are getting to the heart of the community.
Over the period of the licence and over the period of our role
as distributor which goes on licence periods, the actual amounts
going into large projects such as Wembley will be extremely small.
We are faced with the fact that it has come at the early stage
of the Lottery application, because Wembley has been crying out
for investment, but over the period of the licence we will be
spending billions of pounds on community facilities, and Wembley
will be a very small percentage.
(Mr Brooking) Over the almost a year since I became
Chairman of Sport England my main priority, I have to say, has
been for the future of PE and sport in this country. My number
one priority is that there should be investment for PE and sport
in this country. That has been made very clear, and we are working
with Government to try to develop that.
283. I have done a quick sum. £120 million
on Wembley—problems. £70 million on Cardiff—problems.
I think it was £25 million on Hampden Park—problems.
£70 million on Manchester—problems. Does not that say
anything?
(Mr Casey) I would say that in some respects—we
do not have responsibility for Scotland and Wales—I think
that in terms of Manchester the investment we are making in the
facilities for the Commonwealth Games in Manchester will have
tremendous dividends because, of course, of all the issues with
all of these facilities—the new swimming pool, the new stadium,
the new sports city complex in Manchester and all the other facilities—the
key thing is that what we have been looking for is what is the
legacy of this. The legacy is not only viable projects, because
someone else is picking up the running costs and therefore it
is viable, but also the enormous community use that the overall
project is going to generate. So I think that both with Manchester
and Wembley the key criterion we have tried to meet is, is there
expressed demand, and we believe there is. Is this a viable project
with long-term sustainability? The answer is yes. Thirdly, what
does it do for other aspects of community development? In the
case of both Wembley and Manchester, particularly the Eastlands
and East Manchester site, there is a tremendous contribution from
these facilities acting as a catalyst for future regeneration.
284. Like the Dome in Greenwich, you mean?
(Mrs Simmonds) I think it is also important that if
you look at our annual report and the facilities and sports which
have been funded by the Lottery, the sport who receives most funding
is actually multi-sport centres, then second on the list would
come swimming. So I think we are funding things which are very
important to the grass-roots development but, as Trevor said,
if you do not have grass-roots development of school sports you
will not get the participation you are seeing in Australia.
285. I would entirely agree with that. Lastly,
is not this whole problem being driven by the fact that we have
become obsessed with going for an Olympic bid, and that if we
were not doing that could we not be solving our problems a lot
better than we have been doing?
(Mrs Simmonds) As people who believe passionately
in sport, it would be a huge honour if the Olympics were held
in England in our lifetime. I think everyone who sits on Sport
England and the Lottery Panel would say yes to that. The important
thing, though, is that if we are going to have an Olympic bid,
we also have should have substantial or more funding to take that
forward.
(Mr Brooking) It involves a variety of government
departments to achieve that. I would go back to Mr Wyatt's point
about how we achieve that.
286. If the British Olympic team came back with
20 Olympic medals from Sydney, that would do more good for British
sport than having the Olympics in Britain.
(Mr Brooking) We wish them all the best.
Mr Maxton: I am sure we do. Can I thank
all three of you for your contribution which has been very useful
to us.
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