Agenda item

(Mr. G. Copeland (Events Manager) attended in connection with this item.)

The Committee considered the undernoted report:

“1     Relevant Background Information

1.1    At October’s Committee, Members requested a list of potential international events that the Council, along with regional organisations, could bid for over the next five or so years.  Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to update Members on scoping work that the Council’s City Events Unit, along with input from key partners, has undertaken on a range of sporting and cultural events.

1.2    Since 1999 Belfast City Council, working with a variety of regional Government Departments, has been successful in bidding, securing and delivering a range of international events for the city.  These events include: the IAAF World Cross-Country Championships; the IABA World Amateur Boxing Championships; the UEFA Under-19 European Football Championship; the IRB Under-19 Rugby World Cup; Sail Training International’s Tall Ships Races; Viacom’s MTV EMAs; the World Police and Fire Federation’s World Police and Fire Games; RCS Sports’ Giro d’Italia and various national and international competitions connected to the World Irish Dancing Commission.

1.3    However, after the Tall Ships event next year, the city will have only one national event programmed – the All-Ireland Irish Dancing Championships in November, 2016. There are currently no other significant bids for major national and international projects approved by Council for the period 2016 to 2021.  Nor has the Council the current financial resources to pursue such bids, which will require BCC to identify measures to set-aside specific resources (financial and staff) to deliver at least one international event per year, as per the Council’s events and tourism strategies, alongside an extensive domestic programme of annual events funded and/or delivered by the Council. 

2       Key Issues

         It is clear from a range of research that the impact of international and national events is a positive one on the city’s economic, cultural and social life.  However, any future positive benefits, from staging these events must be balanced against the financial constraints that the Council faces.

         Examples of the recent benefits from large international events are as follows:

-       The Tall Ships 2009 event generated £16 million for the local economy. 

-       The Giro d’Italia created a skills programme for over 1,500 volunteers. 

-       And the MTV EMAs was viewed by an estimated 1.2 billion people across the globe, while generating 669 million media opportunities.

         In bidding, securing and delivering major international events the Council was in the position to do so via its allocated reserve budget.  However, the current fiscal situation means that such finance is no longer available.  Therefore, if Members approved the list, or part thereof, resources would need to be made available that is not in the Council’s current medium term fiscal plan.

         These events include national awards events similar to the BBC Sports Personality of the Year, international sports events such as amateur boxing championships, masters games and other annual peripatetic events. However, those events indicated below link to key Government Departments/Agencies strategic objectives and thus would allow the Council to move forward knowing that possible support may be available.  In addition the events listed are also based on the likelihood of a successful bid.  However, like all bidding processes it will be the event owners who decide, regardless of how well a Belfast ‘pitch’ is presented and funded. 

         Funding from Government Departments/Agencies would normally be made with an ‘in principle support’ basis.  Unfortunately this means that no letter of offer would be made until a full business case is submitted to the Government Departments/Agencies and this normally only happens on the back of a successful bid.

         If Members agreed to bidding for the list of events below and if the Council, with partners, were successful the draft programme of national and international events from 2016 to 2021 would be as follows:

         *The 2016 All-Ireland Irish Dancing Championship has been agreed by Council at a cost £200,000

         Over the normal calendar year the Council will deliver, on average, twelve large-scale public events.  Estimated cost for these would be circa £1.1 million.  These events range from St Patrick’s Day, the Lord Mayor’s annual event through to the Christmas Lights Switch-on. 

3       Resource Implications

3.1    If all the events were agreed, the total delivery cost would be in the region of £10 million.  Of this the Council would be asked to contribute £2.66 million over a five year period, alongside a significant level of Officer input.

3.2    There is currently no budget available to finance the projected £2.66 million contribution. Members have already agreed to ring fence any available funding at the year end to cover the non-recurrent costs associated with local government reform. Therefore, Members would need to consider such funding as part of the rate setting process. The department estimates will be considered by the Shadow Strategic Policy and Resources Committee on 16 January 2015

3.3    If the entire programme in Appendix A was agreed there would also be staffing implications in regard to the volumes of work across the Council’s Departments.

4       Equality and Good Relations Considerations

4.1    As with all major civic events, public events like those listed have the potential to bring together people from a wide range of backgrounds and therefore promote good relations in the city.

 5      Recommendations

5.1    Members are requested to provide guidance on the outline draft events in regard to bidding for these events.  As stated this is not a definitive list and other projects are being explored, but those presented are based on work to date alongside potential partner organisations.” 

            The Committee noted the report which had been presented and agreed that large-scale international events made a positive contribution to the local economy and promoted a positive image of the City abroad.

Members made reference also to the recently adopted Belfast Tourism Strategy and the effect of budget cuts across government and their associated impact on events across the City.

            After further discussion, it was agreed that:

-       a City-wide events strategy should be commissioned;

-       international events should be considered within that context and the Strategic Policy and Resources Committee should consider the resources required to deliver events, including large scale international events; and

-       the opportunity to bid for the United Kingdom Pipe Band Championships should be considered by the Shadow Strategic Policy and Resources Committee at its meeting on 16th January, 2015.