Bradford West MP George Galloway today demanded to know how much Bradford MDC had paid for the Tour de France to pass through the council's area and why the city had been by-passed.
"In France communes and municipalities vie with each other to pay for the Tour to come through their town or village. It is my information that Bradford council has done the same. I'd like to know just how much Bradford contributed.? The Tour is an amazing spectacle which brings thousands of visitors and tens of millions in revenue but it looks like little of that will be spent in the shops, hotels and restaurants of the city because the route completely bypasses it," Galloway said. "Are the council ashamed of the city? Did they simply hand over the money and have no part in the decisions about where the Tour would go? The route skirts the city by 10 miles, it's as if there is some kind of exclusion zone."Council leader Dave Green needs to come clean on why the cyclists and citizens of the city are going to have to get on their bikes if they want to see one of the world's greatest sporting events."