Fury as Edinburgh's bill for MTV soars to £230,000

Published on Friday 12 December 2003 00:00

FRESH anger over the staging of the MTV Europe Music Awards in Edinburgh erupted today after it emerged that the cost to taxpayers has soared to £230,000.

Opposition councillors are furious after discovering 75,000 worth of "hidden costs" will have to be paid for by the local authority.

Officials are being told to find the unbudgeted cash from their existing budgets to pay for extra clean-ups and policing, traffic management, staffing costs and public safety measures such as crush barriers.

An economic impact study due to be published early next year is expected to show that the event generated around 4 million for the economy of Edinburgh and the Lothians.

But despite claims by tourism leaders that the long-term benefits of MTV coming to Edinburgh will be felt for up to ten years, critics are sceptical about the value for money for taxpayers in the city.

The council has already forked out 125,000 to help cover the costs of creating the event arena at the Western Harbour. The grant was match-funded by the Scottish Executive, while Scottish Enterprise Edinburgh and Lothian paid 500,000.

Another 30,000 was committed by the council in advance to help pay for flags and banners around the city during the week of the event, footage of which was said to be watched by a global television audience of more than a billion.

Tory group secretary Ian Berry said: "This is a big hit for the council to take and I don’t think the average taxpayer will be too impressed by it.

"I really do question the benefits this event is supposed to have brought the city. Where is the evidence? I’m very sceptical it’s anything like 4m."

Fellow Tory Alastair Paisley added: "It’s the Scottish Executive that should be footing this bill, not the taxpayers of Edinburgh.

"That’s a hell of an amount of money, which would have been better spent by the council on the likes of care for the elderly."

And Liberal Democrat group secretary Paul Edie said: "It’s quite astonishing that the council is having to find so much money for this event when you think of the supposed benefits to the city, particularly the hotels who would have made so much money out of it but don’t put a penny back in for us.

"It’s very important for us to keep a tight rein on the public purse, so it’s very worrying that these hidden costs are beginning to come out now."

The council’s chief executive, Tom Aitchison, has told councillors that department directors were instructed to authorise the necessary expenditure for the event because of the "high profile and wider economic benefits" to Edinburgh.

But he is to report back early next year on the fact that the council does not currently have a corporate budget to pay for costs incurred by major events.

In the run-up to the MTV event there was controversy that the council was footing the bill for extra cleaning to be carried out on hotel frontages, as part of a 25,000 blitz to spruce up the city.

That cash will have to be found in the environment department’s budget for the year, while similar amounts are having to come from the budgets of the corporate services, and culture and leisure departments.

Despite widespread anger over the costs, Edinburgh’s festivals and events champion, Steve Cardownie, said he was convinced the city would be a net winner. "I’ve absolutely no doubt at all that we’ve made a sound financial investment in this event," he said.

"The footage of it was beamed all over the world and I’m sure the economic impact study will show that it has generated several million pounds for the city’s economy."

The row over the funding of the MTV Europe Music Awards follows controversy over the financial backing given to bring the International Festival of the Sea to Edinburgh earlier in the year.

The council was forced to hand over 150,000 to the organisers after agreeing to underwrite the event, which attracted less than 50,000 people despite predictions that more than 125,000 people would attend.

It was also funded to the tune of 500,000 by Scottish Enterprise Edinburgh and Lothian, 100,000 by the Scottish Executive and 100,000 by VisitScotland.