As we forecast in January, the Labour run York Council has now been forced to admit that the new Community Stadium will not be ready for occupation before 2016.

The development contract is due to be awarded in November but it has been clear for some time that the original target date, of an August 2014 opening, would not be achieved.

The delay has little to do with the need to re-house a colony of Great Crested Newts as has been claimed in the media. Complex tendering negotiations under European regulations were always going to be taking place at the present time. Local wildlife housing needs have no effect on this part of the stadium development timetable.

The procurement process for the new Community Stadium was expected to take 15 months with the contract being awarded in November 2013.

The Council are still claiming that this will include the appointment of a new operator to take ownership of the daily operation of Energise and the Yearsley Pool as well as the Huntington stadium leisure complex with effect from early in 2014.

Those watching the stadium web site will have been first disappointed, and then uneasy, to see no recent update reports.

A working group, which was monitoring progress on the project, was disbanded when Labour took office in 2011. There have been no recent statements from the Council Leadership on the Community Stadium, its associated developments and the way that the business plan for the project is maturing.

The delay is one of many that are dogging the increasingly accident prone York Council.

The modernisation programme for elderly person’s accommodation has slipped by 3 years, while many of the Council’s transport projects are now running 12 months behind schedule.