Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Councillor Dawood.

Members are asked to declare any interests they may have in the business to be discussed and/or indicate that Section 106 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 applies to them.

Members were asked to declare any interests they may have in the business on the agenda and/or declare if Section 106 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 applied to them. No such declarations were made.

The Leader has agreed to consider the following report as urgent business. The reason the report is considered urgent is due to the need to submit a bid on 26 November 2009.

LEICESTER’S BID TO BECOME A CANDIDATE HOST CITY FOR THE 2018 OR 2022 FIFA WORLD CUP

The Leader agreed to accept the following item of business as urgent on the grounds that, if Cabinet and Council were minded to approve the recommendations, there was a need to submit a bid on 25 November 2009.

It was noted that the full report was marked as “not for publication” because it contained exempt information as defined in paragraph 3 (information relating to financial or business affairs of any particular person, including the Authority holding that information) and paragraph 5 (information in respect of which a claim to legal professional privilege could be maintained in legal proceedings) of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 as amended. It was also recommended that it was in the public interest to maintain these exemptions.

The Solicitor and Monitoring Officer explained that the report had been written in two parts, to allow for full discussion in public, without disclosing exempt information. He explained in detail the reasons for treating the information as exempt, stating that it related to conditions of the bid, which were held by the Council under strict terms of confidence, detailed legal advice and matters of commercial sensitivity for the Council and other parties. He advised, therefore, that, if Members wished to discuss any of the matters that were exempt, the meeting should move into private session.

Councillor Willmott agreed that it would be appropriate to maintain the exemption, and advised Cabinet to move into private session if they wished to discuss matters within the private report. He thanked officers for writing the report in such a way that allowed the substantive information to be considered in public.

LEICESTER’S BID TO BECOME A CANDIDATE HOST CITY FOR THE 2018 OR 2022 FIFA WORLD CUP

Councillor Willmott submits a report that considers whether Cabinet should recommend to Council that Leicester City Council should submit its final bid to England 2018 to become a Host City for the 2018 or 2022 FIFA World Cup™ and sign relevant Agreements to accompany the bid, namely, the Host City Agreement, Intellectual Property Rights (“IPR”) Assignment, and the Host City Contribution to England 2018 Campaign and Marketing agreement.

The report will be circulated as soon as it is available.

On behalf of Councillor Willmott, the Strategic Director, Development, Culture and Regeneration, submitted a report that would enable Council to consider and make a resolution as to whether Leicester City Council should submit its final bid to England 2018 to become a Host City for the 2018 or 2022 FIFA World Cup™ and sign relevant Agreements to accompany the bid, namely the Host City Agreement, Intellectual Property Rights Assignment, and the Host City Contribution to England 2018 Campaign and Marketing Agreement.

He pointed out that there were opportunities to fully recoup the funding to be allocated, but that Council would be asked to underwrite this amount. Research had been carried out into the impact of Germany hosting the World Cup, and case studies, such as Nuremberg, which had recently been outlined in the Leicester Mercury, had shown that there were a large number of income streams and financial benefits to host cities. If it was decided not to go ahead with Leicester’s bid, this would result in disbenefit for the city, particularly if a neighbouring city was chosen, as it would be difficult to promote Leicester whilst the focus was on another city.

Councillor Willmott thanked officers for the work they had done on the bid and stated that the potential benefits to the city should not be ignored.  It was a chance second-to-none to raise the profile of Leicester, and would bring lasting benefits. He also pointed out the high level of public support for the bid and stated that it would be right for the Council to act on behalf of the people of Leicester. He welcomed the opportunity to mitigate the costs with income and other opportunities for sponsorship, and noted that there was a lot of time to plan properly.

RESOLVED:

That to enable the City Council as lead agency to submit the final bid to England 2018 along with a signed copy of the Host City Agreement, Intellectual Property Agreement and Host City Contribution to England 2018 Campaign and Marketing Agreement to ensure full compliance and therefore continue to seek status for Leicester of Candidate Host City for the 2018/2022 FIFA World Cup™, Cabinet:

1)      notes the estimated benefits, cost and risks of entering into legal agreements as detailed in the report and the confidential report and resolves that subject to necessary approvals by Council in respect of budgetary provision :

(a) It approves the Council’s bid and endorses the execution of the legal agreements described in this report namely :

i) The Host City Agreement for the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cupä Bid

ii)        The Intellectual Property Rights Assignment for the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cupä Bid

iii)      Host City Contribution to England 2018 Agreement  and

(b) Authorises the Strategic Director, Development, Culture and Regeneration to agree to enter into any other documentation which is considered necessary in so far as it is ancillary or incidental to the bid.

2)      approves the payment in the financial year 2010/11 of pre  ...  view the full minutes text for item 105.

The meeting closed at 1.16pm.