Annex 19
Letter, 8 December 2000, from Sport England
to WNSL
APPLICATION TO REMOVE ATHLETICS FROM WEMBLEY
I am writing to confirm that the Council considered
your re-submitted grant application for the English National Stadium
Project on 4 December 2000.
The Council's decisions were as follows:
1. On the basis that there is no evident
demand from the relevant parties to hold athletics events at the
stadium, it approved the removal of the athletics obligations
under the Lottery Funding Agreement.
2. This would include the removal of the
requirement from the Lottery Funding Agreement (LFA):
2.1 To hold athletics events at the stadium
on a "costs only" basis; and
2.2 To retain the design capability of the
stadium to accommodate athletics.
3. The Council decision was on the basis:
3.1 That WNSL should still have the obligation
(on a costs only basis) to host Olympic events other than track
and field athletics events, which require no alteration to the
Stadium. In this context, the installation of the platform would
constitute such an alteration to the stadium.
3.2 The applicants can provide adequate assurances
as to payment of £20 million;
3.3 Appropriate changes to the LFA are agreed.
We shall now prepare amendments to the LFA to
reflect Council's decision based upon those amendments submitted
with your application, and to effect the associated £20 million
payment as envisaged in your re-submitted application. This will
be circulated shortly. Meanwhile, I understand that these points
will be discussed at the WNSL Board meeting on 11 December when
I hope agreement can be reached.
On a related matter, the Council approved a
change to the LFA to reflect the agreed programme for the construction
of the project (39 months), instead of the current LFA requirement
(36 months).
In the meantime, please do not hesitate to contact
me should you wish to discuss any aspect of the Council's decision
in this matter. You will also appreciate that we will need urgent
clarification of the current timetable and the basis for any future
request to extend milestone three.
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