That’s a rather smart looking building in the North York Moors isn’t it? I wonder what the blue plaque says?
Aaah! National Lottery. Sport England? What sort of sport goes on up there I wonder?
Shall we look up the planning permission?
It’s a shooting hut which shall only be used by shoot personnel from early in the morning to the evening (no overnight stays).
Hang on! David Ross? Isn’t he the bloke who founded Carphone Warehouse (I loathe their adverts btw) – he is indeed!
How interesting. Well, I thought it was interesting. A very rich man has a rather new shooting hut with a Sport England logo on it – almost as if Sport England have been sporting enough to pay for some of it!
Could that be right? Sport England – kids’ sports, the Olympics and shooting huts for millionaires? Surely not?
I had a look on the Sport England website and thought I’d found the grant but I was wrong. On this page there are links to two databases of Sport England grants and in the Lottery Grants one you can find (on line 10558) a grant of c£0.25m for enhanced community sports facilities and the grant was made to the David Ross Education Trust. Could that be it? Actually – no!
I’m glad I checked, and the helpful staff at the David Ross Education Trust quickly put me straight (that grant was for football pitches). They knew nothing of a building on a grouse moor they told me – and I believe them. They also said they’d pass my query on to other parts of the David Ross empire, and I dare say they did, but I haven’t heard back from them.
Sport England haven’t been very forthcoming either. I asked them why their logo was on this building but I couldn’t find any record of a grant in their database for the relevant parliamentary constituency – they sent me an email a few days ago and then recalled it immediately – so I read it, but it didn’t say anything and they haven’t come back to me.
I just wonder why that building, used only for shooting, has a Sport England logo on it? And how, if it did, it received public funding. The apparent funder is very reticent about why its logo is on the building and the recipient of the grant has not got back to me. There must be a simple explanation but it appears that no-one wants to tell me what it is.
Can anyone out there fill in any gaps, please?
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Well how interesting! Having been involved in a couple of National Lottery grants and the management of those grants for the personal development of young people in the outdoors, I too would struggle to see how what you present could possibly fit into a successful application. Clearly answers should be forthcoming!
This is big but I don’t suppose answers will be forthcoming. The National Lottery is conducting surveys on their site. I’ve just completed one asking about the good causes my money has helped, in particular the renovation of a shooting hut for the grouse shooting elite.
‘that grant was for football pitches’
Maybe those red grouse have moved the goalposts?
Just done it – https://www.national-lottery.co.uk/
The way to do it is hit feedback
Fill in other regarding the money going towards Red Grouse shooting
and a private firm may get in touch to challenge your – other!
Just did that, Mike. Suggested they try using lottery money to support charities. Hope there’ll be lots more like it.
As we’re now living in the age of ‘post-truth politics’, we shouldn’t bother ourselves with the facts, but focus on people’s feelings. I feel pretty outraged by this.
I am sure it is coincidence but David Ross lists membership of Sport England on his website. I can’t see when he started, but he resigned from the board in November 2015.
Sports England has also invested heavily in Ross’s chain of academies http://www.dret.co.uk/enrichment-and-partnerships/sport-england
Perhaps the shooting hut is actually owned by Ross’s Academy chain? Ross is clearly keen to get as much sport into his Academy’s education as possible – here’s the newsletter for the Barnes Wallis Academy http://www.barneswallisacademy.co.uk/sites/default/files/newsletters/bwa_dec_4pp_pages_for20screen.compressed.pdf
Of course it’s not just the hut. Ross owns at least 444ha of land (much of it moorland) around Northdale, on much of which he is getting ELS/HLS.
Miles – I’m sure Sport England will be keen to clear up any speculation about why their logo is on a shooting lodge. Although, nothing from them yet. Nor from David Ross, yet.
sorry Ross was on Sport England board much earlier – probably over 10 years ago. He left the London Legacy Development Corporation Board in november 2015.
National Lottery? Hi, it’s Malcolm Glazer here, owner of Manchester United Football Club. Could we have a grant for a new directors’ lounge, it will be used exclusively by our wealthiest share-holders. Yes, of course we’ll hang a plaque on the wall. Thank you, when can we expect the money?
PD is having a chat with himself in the “Just a Few Words” entry from yesterday.
You could include this in the Panorama program idea that you’ve so far ignored !!
Really, its all very well playing a game of “Ain’t it Awful” with a few mates on here but you seem remarkably reluctant to try for some real serious hard hitting publicity on prime time TV. Why is that?
Or is it just me – ignore him and maybe he’ll go away. You don’t value my asking serious questions of my MP who sits atop the Shooting APPG on your behalf – you have the emails! Or is it that any supporter must fully agree with your demands and style to be granted some feedback?
PD – this comment is off topic – next time I won’t post it.
And getting shirty with me won’t get you feedback.
But as with your comments about bird clubs, you have no idea what avenues have been explored and with whom.
I can’t speak for Sport England, but before everyone gets carried away with how bent “The Lottery” is, my experience with the Heritage Lottery Fund has been very positive. From what I’ve seen they have good systems of accountability and oversight and with active, involved, and passionate Committee members making funding decisions.
There does seem to be something very odd about this Sport England shooting hut malarkey, but please can we not generalise into a diatribe about how all public servants and institutions are corrupt? I’ve been on the receiving end too often, and in my experience it’s almost always untrue.
Public bodies just make decisions that some people sometimes don’t like. Just like individuals and businesses do, but somehow it’s become socially acceptable to slag off public servants and public bodies on the basis of no evidence whatsoever; just like it became OK to accuse the EU of anything and everything regardless of truth, and look where that got us.
jbc – agreed.
Interesting Mark !
Ross’s main residence is the 13th-century, Grade I-listed Nevill Holt estate, near Market Harborough, Leicestershire, on which he has spent millions. In addition, he has, or has had, homes in Kensington and Mustique, and in Switzerland,[5] where he spent some time as a tax exile.[39] He owned a second country estate, at Brampton Ash in Northamptonshire; his stepsister, Fiona, was murdered there in 2006 and in 2008 he decided to sell it. He has a reputation for partying and a love of shooting, pursuing the latter interest with people such as Lineker and Richard Branson. In 2007 he bought 4,500 hectares (11,000 acres) of grouse moor in Yorkshire.[5]
Jbc: My experience of HLF has also been very positive, but my experience of Sport England (which got almost to a judicial review in 2014) is that they absolutely have no checks and balances in place to see whether money is likely to be spent appropriately.
In my battle (against my former employer, Derby City Council) Sport England were supporting their take-up of a grant which would have seen a cycling race track built right on top of a designated Local Nature Reserve (LNR) and adjacent to a velodrome they had already funded nearby. No matter how many times we informed and challenged Sport England over their actions in encouraging this project, it was clear that for them any form of sport comes before any form of environmental consideration, even for sites with statutory designation. (To be honest, Sport England seem far better at defending plain grass playing fields than Natural England are at protecting SSSIs/SACs/SPAs!)
I’m pleased to say we forced Derby Council to back down. The LNR remains badly damaged, but the cycle track went away. Most importantly the precedent of LNR’s being built on for no valid reason in England has receded.
But do remember the disadvantaged: “Sometimes the only way out of the ghetto is through grouse shooting”
Nick – interesting account indeed! Well done.
But not corruption, just blinkered outlook. It’s possible that Sport England has a statutory duty to put sport above other interests, in the context of a legal framework where the Planning system is supposed to decide between competing social and economic objectives (just guessing).
But why their name would be on a grouse hut? maybe they’re redirecting gun toting urban gang members into a more acceptable set of targets!
money laundering
Jonathan – I don’t think it is a laundry, I think it’s a shooting hut.
“The Freedom of Information (FOI) Act 2000 Open in a new window gives members of the public the right to access information held by public bodies, including Sport England. The Environmental Information Regulations 2004, which ensure that environmental information is accessible to the public, also apply to Sport England.”
https://www.sportengland.org/about-us/corporate-information/freedom-of-information/ tells you they will tell you in 3 days when they will answer fully. Best to do a FoI and get a h´journo to ask.
Mark – I asked them about this last week. And phoned this morning. They promise to get back to me. There may be a very simple explanation of course.
Try the Freedom of Information Act to find out more? I’m sure the National Lottery also has to be 100% transparent…
How very observant of you and persistent. I will be pleased to know how this turns out. If we take this issue into the wider realm of land ownership in the UK we will, of course, not be surprised to find that many open areas of our landscape are owned by multi-national conglomerates, absent wealthy landlords and some of our own gentry whose ancestors achieved their gross inheritances from feudal rights, gifts from the Monarch, theft from other landowners, clearances and many other abuses of power. Readers of this bloig may be interested to read the updated version of Andy Wightman’s book ‘The Poor Had No Lawyers’. http://www.andywightman.com/shop
Andy – thank you. It’s a good book.
Some that flavour is in Chapter 2 of my own book Inglorious- conflict in the uplands.
It appears that when it comes to public money nobody has a clue where it goes. If it comes out in the end that taxpayers or lottery money was used for this building then I would burn it down!!!