The Tour de France will start in Edinburgh in 2027, after the signing of a host agreement was approved by councillors.
The go-ahead for the event was confirmed at a special meeting called on Tuesday to discuss the agreement.
But details of exactly what the city has agreed to have not been made public, with most discussion around the agreement kept private.
Edinburgh has agreed to set aside £1.7 million of funding, which it is hoped will be covered by income from the city’s visitor levy.
Councillors were assured that an agreement that the Scottish Government cover any financial overruns beyond the £1.7m price tag was “ironclad”.
But a Conservative councillor questioned a ‘cap’ that may have been placed on the Scottish Government’s level of financial support for the event. Officers said that any discussions about that subject would have to happen in the private portion of the meeting.
The councillor was referencing discussions which happened at a briefing on Tuesday between council stakeholders and Scottish Government representatives, which included Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes.
The Scottish Government has been exploring having the country host the Tour de France grand depart for 17 years.
Culture and Communities Committee convener and Labour councillor Margaret Arma Graham said: “Time is now of the essence with signing, we do really need to make a decision today.
“It’s now very clear from the discussions we’ve had with regard to the commitment to funding and underwriting costs, et cetera.
“I’m very glad that there’s going to be such an emphasis on a sporting event in the city, sometimes these are not always a high priority.
“Cycling in general will get a boost from something so famous coming here.”
Cllr Marion-Cameron added: “It’s also good to hear – because this isn’t always the case – that Edinburgh is getting the best deal out of all the local authorities from the Scottish Government.”
Some community benefits that may come from the agreement were revealed at the meeting, including free bikes for children and cycling lessons for young people.
An amendment from council’s Green group committing officers to work and make sure that the Tour de France organisers delivered them was also agreed.
But councillors expressed criticism towards city officers for how the process of coordinating the hosting of the event has been handled.
Labour councillor Lesley Marion-Cameron asked officers: “I am really surprised that we are posing questions that I think we ought to have known the answers to before now.
“That said, we have no finance officer here, we have no legal officer present, and there may be questions that relate to aspects in the contract and in response to policy that we’ve heard other colleagues raise.
“And also, apart from Mr Rose, we have no senior officer in the room here to assist and advise the convener on such aspects. And I just wondered why that was?”
Gareth Barwell, executive director of place, who attended remotely, said he had misread his diary, and thought the meeting was to be held only on Microsoft Teams.
He continued to say that the agreement councillors were being asked to agree with had been reviewed by the council’s legal team.
Conservative councillor Christopher Cowdy asked: “There’s been a lot of criticism about the process of the decision making to get the Tour de France here.
“I was surprised that there seemed to be no awareness from the officers about the contents of the briefing yesterday.
“And it just gives this ongoing theme about how seriously the officers are taking the decision making process.
“Why do we not have more senior officers in this room here? There are five councillors here, and Mr Rose – thank you very much for coming – but nobody else.
“And it just really does make me think that this is not being taken as seriously as it should be.”
Mr Barwell replied: “I can reassure you, I think the amount of committee time that we’ve been given to this report shows that the council is taking this seriously.
“I can assure you officers are taking it seriously. My view is that [the briefing] was a political discussion. My view was that there was no need for officers to be there, it was a meeting for politicians.”
In recent months, concerns have been raised over the way discussions about the city hosting the event have been handled.
Council officers wrongly told councillors that political group leaders had backed the city hosting the event during discussions in October.
The group leaders instead say they were supportive of officers exploring it more, but that they had not expressly supported the decision at that time.
A bid by the city’s SNP group to ensure funding for the event came from a part of the city’s upcoming visitor levy that covers ‘destination and visitor management’ was beaten back.
By Joseph Sullivan Local Democracy Reporter
The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) is a public service news agency. It is funded by the BBC, provided by the local news sector (in Edinburgh that is Reach plc (the publisher behind Edinburgh Live and The Daily Record) and used by many qualifying partners. Local Democracy Reporters cover news about top-tier local authorities and other public service organisations.
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