Wednesday 5 April 2017

Haringey Council's subsidy to Spurs revealed as Brent Council leader meets concerned residents



Wembley Champions, the residents and small businesses umbrella group that fought against the 'Twin Towers' that is to replace Chesterfield House at the junction of Park Lane and Wembley High Road and also opposed the increase in full capacity events at Wembley Stadium, are to meet with the leader of the Council and senior officers about their concerns about developments in Wembley with a vew to a public meeting later. LINK


Wembley high rise building from the stadium ramp
 Meanwhile Spurs has been given an extension of the deadline to sign up for the Wembley Stadium and must now agree the deal by April 30th. Spurs chairman, Daniel Levy, has suggested that due to delays in getting the construction of the new Spurs stadium underway that the team may play their home games at White Hart Lane next season.  Chelsea waits in the wings...

During the planning application debate the applicants stressed the financial advantage to local businesses of more high capacity events (not shared by the High Road Business Association) and there were suggestions that the deal would also be advantageous to the Council and thus to council tax payers.

However a Freedom of Information request to Haringey Council suggests that the traffic is not all one way LINK:

Public Subsidy to Tottenham Hotspur:
In February 2012, Cabinet approved a £27m Funding and Investment Package for North Tottenham. The funding comprised of £18m of funding from the Greater London Authority (GLA) and £9m funding from the council. This included a decision to allocate £8m of funding for ‘public realm and heritage improvements’ linked to the Northumberland Development Project (the new stadium and associated development currently underway by Tottenham Hotspur) scheme.

Via a Cabinet Member Decision to be taken in April 2017, we will be seeking approval to enter into formal grant agreements with THFC to contribute £7.5m (£500,000 of the £8m funding has previously been used to contribute to the North Tottenham Heritage Initiative) for the public realm and heritage improvement works Tottenham Hotspur Football Club (THFC) will be undertaking as part of the NDP scheme.

Since February 2012, the Council has also undertaken the following funding transactions with THFC:

§  £32,898 to THFC for services such as room hire
§  £644,215 to the Tottenham Hotspur Foundation (THFC’s charitable
foundation)  for the delivery of programmes relating to health, social
care, community development, education and employment
§  £4,000 to Tottenham Hotspur Ladies Football Club for sports and activity programmes

You can access a copy of the original 2012 Cabinet report in the Cabinet meeting pack here:
[1]http://www.minutes.haringey.gov.uk/docum...
The report specific to the funding package for Tottenham Hotspur can be found on page 143 of the document (page 149 of the pdf)

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