Appendix 2
Letter to the Chairman of the Committee
from the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport and the
Chairman of Sport England
Following Trevor Brooking's letter to you of 22 March,
there has been some related and potentially misleading press comment
over the weekend. We thought it would be helpful to write jointly
to set the record straight on a number of points.
In our evidence to the Committee, we were clear that
Sport England have allocated within their budget up to £60
million (£40m allocation and £20m to be paid to Sport
England by the FA) to the Lee Valley National Athletics Centre
subject to a satisfactory application coming forward for substantive
funding. Sport England is not able to make a formal commitment
to funding a project which has yet to make a full application
and this will remain the position until such an application comes
forward.
The offer made by the Football Association and Wembley
National Stadium Limited to pay £20 million from the original
grant of £120 million was agreed by the Secretary of State
and the Football Association on 23 December 1999. The application
to amend the terms of the Lottery Funding Agreement to effect
payment and the removal of athletics was made by the Football
Association and Wembley National Stadium Limited on 29 September
2000 and, after extensive consultation, was agreed by the Sport
England Council on 4 December 2000. The formal agreement between
Sport England, the Football Association and Wembley National Stadium
Limited will be concluded once financial close has been achieved
on the package of debt financing.
Finally, as you know, there were extensive discussions
about the site of the Wembley warm-up track in 1999. Copelands
School had been one of the four short-listed options but it was
agreed that it was not ideal. While it could have been developed
for the World Athletics Championships, Sport England indicated
during discussion at the Wembley Task Force meeting on 11 November
1999 that it would be likely to weaken any World Athletics Championship
bid. It has always been accepted that this site was not suitable
for the Olympics.
We hope that these points will help to clarify these
issues for the Committee as you consider your Report.
27 March 2001
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