Yorkshire (Tour de France)

Jason McCartney Excerpts

Tuesday 18th December 2012 Westminster Hall

[Jason McCartney (Colne Valley) (Con)]

It is an absolute honour to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Gray. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Skipton and Ripon (Julian Smith) on securing this important debate and on being instrumental in forming the all-party group, which will massively support this exciting venture. I add my thanks to Gary Verity, Peter Dodd and all the team at Welcome to Yorkshire, and also to Tom Riordan. They have had amazing vision, and determination to win the bid, against all the odds, for Yorkshire. This really is an exciting time for our part of the world.

I am not surprised by the interest shown here this morning. There are, I think, a dozen coalition Back Benchers here, and it is amazing to see so much support. The support and interest are not surprising, however, because we all know that cycling is the new rock and roll, and on Sunday evening I had a quick chat with its current lead singer, Bradley Wiggins, at the BBC sports personality of the year awards. I raised the prospect of his cycling in Yorkshire on the Tour in 2014. I will not repeat exactly what he said—we have to remember, of course, that he comes from Lancashire way—but he indicated that he is really looking forward to cycling in Yorkshire.

We have a great history and heritage of cycling in Yorkshire. For example, did Members know that the first British stage winner of the Tour was the now 82-year-old Brian Robinson from Mirfield near Huddersfield? When I announced to some people last week that the Tour de France was coming to Yorkshire, a number of them said, “Tour de France, coming to Yorkshire? How can that work?”, but this will not be the first time that it has come to the UK. The Tour has already visited England three times, and each time the event has got bigger and better. It all started in 1974 with one stage on the Plymouth bypass. In 1994 there were two stages on the south coast and, as many Members have already mentioned, the grand départ came to London in 2007, with a time trial plus one road stage. We now have the grand départ coming to Yorkshire in 2014. It is estimated that Ken Livingstone invested £3.5 million in the 2007 bid, and London got a financial return in excess of £85 million.

[Greg Mulholland]

I want to reiterate a point I made earlier that ties in perfectly with that. London will once again host the event, but it has not put a penny in. That is fine, because Yorkshire won the bid, but if that is not an argument for Yorkshire getting some investment from central Government in London, I do not know what is.

--- Later in debate ---

[Jason McCartney]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. When we talk about investing money, the issue is the kind of return we will get, and that is why I made that point. The event will be excellent value for money. For each pound put in, the multiples that we can get back for the local economy and tourism will be amazing.

Yorkshire could gain—we have heard this figure already —in excess of £300 million in direct revenue, plus masses of media exposure and subsequent tourism benefits. Some 3.6 million people in Britain watched the live coverage of Bradley Wiggins’ historic win on the Tour this year. With more than 1,500 hours broadcast in more than 160 countries and an estimated TV audience of 2 billion viewers worldwide, the Tour de France has reached truly global proportions; that is what Yorkshire can look forward to in 2014. As well as benefits to tourism resulting from spectators, teams and the whole tour entourage coming here, there will of course be the focus of the world’s media from now until 2014, and the opportunity to highlight our area as a place for cyclists to come to and ride in, either on their own or on organised rides.

We have yet to have the route confirmed, but I will continue to bang the drum—as many colleagues have this morning—for the route to sweep through my constituency, the beautiful Colne Valley. We have a gruelling gradient—the picturesque hill climb up to Holme Moss on the Pennines—and TV cameras would relish the opportunity to show off that picturesque Pennines panorama to the world. Holme Moss has already featured in the Tour of Britain and the Leeds classic road races. I remember standing outside the Red Lion pub in Jackson Bridge, where I lived with my family, watching the peloton swish past on the Tour of Britain in the 1990s. After the demise of the BBC’s “Last of the Summer Wine” TV series, which brought tourism to the Holme valley, this exciting and now prominent sport can help to re-energise the local tourism economy in my constituency.

My area has booming cycling participation, helped in no small way by the series of “pedal for pounds” charity bike rides organised by Huddersfield Town football club. Last year, I joined 168 charity cyclists in raising £200,000 for the Yorkshire air ambulance and the Huddersfield Town youth academy, as we cycled the 300 miles from Huddersfield to Brighton over three days. This year, even more cyclists took on the challenge and cycled from Yeovil back to Huddersfield.

My constituency is ready and all fired up to help to make the 2014 Tour de France grand départ just as successful as this year’s Olympic games, if not more so, and to leave a lasting legacy of participation and investment in the local Yorkshire community and the Yorkshire economy. Vive le Tour, and vive le Yorkshire!