FIRST REPORT
The Culture, Media and Sport Committee
has agreed to the following Report:
UNPICKING THE LOCK: THE WORLD ATHLETICS
CHAMPIONSHIPS IN THE UK
"This is another fine mess ..."
Oliver Hardy.
INTRODUCTION
This Report threads its way though the sorry and
convoluted way in which a national athletics centre at Picketts
Lock was plucked out of the air by the Government and then abruptly
dropped. It is a saga of how Government involved itself beyond
its scope and powers in conjuring up a project that this Committee
judged unviable from the start. It is also a salutary lesson to
Lottery award panels that they are not lucky dips but custodians
of public money. The Department of Culture, Media and Sport and
Sport England both have important lessons to learn from the mess
described in this Report. If ever there were justification for
inquiry by select committees, this is it.
This Committee was appointed on 16 July 2001 and
at its first meeting on 19 July announced an inquiry into the
proposed national athletics centre at Picketts Lock. We invited
written submissions on 23 July but issued new terms of reference
on 10 October. These reflected the decision taken by the Secretary
of State for Culture, Media and Sport on 4 October to offer Sheffield
to the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF)
as the Government's preferred venue for the 2005 World Athletics
Championships (WAC) instead of Picketts Lock. At that time we
set out three issues for consideration:
- the available options for hosting the 2005 World
Championships in Athletics in the United Kingdom;
- the implications of the Government's decisions
on Picketts Lock, and the 2005 championships, for future UK bids
to host international sporting events; and
- lessons arising from the history of the Picketts
Lock proposals and the UK's bid for the 2005 games.[2]
The evidence we have received has also led us to
re-examine some issues that the previous Committee had dealt with
before, related to the Government's decision in December 1999
to remove athletics from the mix of events that could be held
at the proposed English National Stadium at Wembley. We therefore
reconsider that decision, the relevant Lottery Funding Agreement
(LFA) and the 'side-agreement' between Government and The Football
Association (FA) over a £20 million repayment of Lottery
money to Sport England.[3]
This Report therefore falls into four parts: the
background to the selection of Picketts Lock as a venue for the
2005 WAC; the decision on Picketts Lock; the continuing controversy
over the Lottery grant for Wembley; and lessons to be learned.
We received submissions from a range of witnesses,
including supplementary evidence as the situation developed, and,
in some cases, in response to specific questions from the Committee.
We heard oral evidence from representatives from Sheffield City
Council and Sheffield International Venues; Wembley National Stadium
Limited (WNSL) and their architects, The World Stadium Team; UK
Sport; UK Athletics; Sport England; as well as Mr Patrick Carter
and members of his Lee Valley Stadium Review team; the Secretary
of State for Culture, Media and Sport, The Rt Hon Tessa Jowell
MP and the Minister for Sport, The Rt Hon Richard Caborn MP, on
16 and 23 October 2001. We received memoranda from Lee Valley
Regional Park Authority (Lee Valley RPA), Mr Bill Glad, General
Secretary of the nascent organising committee for the championships
('London 2005') and from Enfield Council amongst others.[4]
We did not seek oral evidence from Lee Valley as we decided to
focus on decisions yet to be taken and the schedule we had set
ourselves was demanding. We did not seek oral evidence from the
former Secretary of State, The Rt Hon Chris Smith MP, nor the
former Minister for Sport, Kate Hoey MP, in the light of their
evidence on these matters on two previous occasions.[5]
Mr Smith did write to the Chairman, however, on one evidential
point.[6] We were grateful
to Sport England and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport,
jointly, for the supply of a copy of the full report of the Lee
Valley Stadium Review in confidence.
2 CMSC press notice No 2, 10 October 2001. Back
3 Sport
England is the trading name of the English Sports Council. Back
4 The
oral and written evidence received by the Committee is set out
in this volume after the Report. Back
5 1
February 2000, HC 164, 1999-2000, p 92ff; and 21 March 2001, HC
286-II, 2000-01, p 204ff. Back
6 Ev,
p 145. Back
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