Almost £70,000 was spent on taking the Olympic and Paralympic torch to York a Freedom of Information request has found. 

The cost was split between safety devices to stop people getting on the roads, staffing and the cost of a celebration concert.

Previous FOI requests have found in Scotland the total figure was around £800,000.

 

York Press report:

Figures released under the Freedom of Information Act show City of York Council paid £39,120 for barriers, road signs, fences and the trackway for the torch and lantern-bearers when the sporting symbols passed through the city this summer.

The authority also spent £8,861 on staffing, stewarding and security and £7,000 to hire facilities at York Racecourse for the culmination of the torch relay on June 19, which saw 23,412 people attend a celebration concert.

 A further 55,000 people are estimated to have lined the torch route, with the council saying at the time that city-centre footfall on that day was 25 per cent higher than normal.
I am a journalist and author. I am a journalist at the UK edition of WIRED magazine. In 2015, my first book Freedom of Information: A Practical Guide for UK Journalists, was published. My second book Reed Hastings: Building Netflix, was published in March 2020. I created FOI Directory in 2012 and have maintained it in my spare time ever since.