Grand Departy
The Council agreed last night to undertake an inquiry into the Grand Departy and other aspects of the 2014 Tour de France organisation in the City.
The “scrutiny review” was shelved earlier I the year pending the Council elections.
The Grand Departy cost Council taxpayers over £187,000!
Last November, Lib Dem Cllr Ian Cuthbertson submitted a request for a review into the “planning, promotion and delivery” of council organised events for the 2014 Tour De France in York.
These events included the £187,000 loss-making ‘Grand Departy’ concert at Huntington Stadium.
In January, Labour councillors led calls to delay the inquiry until after May’s local elections.
However, following the delay the issue is now back on the table and will be discussed at Monday’s cross-party Learning & Culture Policy and Scrutiny Committee.
Cllr Ian Cuthbertson, Lib Dem Councillor for Haxby and Wigginton, will attend the meeting to support an inquiry. He commented:
“It was disappointing that councillors chose to delay the review into the Grand Departy concert in January. Besides a loss to taxpayers of £187,000 from the concert, there were serious issues raised about public safety at the event. The report on the overall economic impact of the Tour De France did not address these issues and there are still unanswered questions. A proper inquiry is needed to establish what happened and what lessons can be learnt for future events.”
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After many delays, it looks like a decision will now be made on how to investigate the £187,000 loss that the last Council made on the Grand Departy concert.
There were also safety concerns raised about the event by an independent committee
The event took place in June 2014 but Labour Councillors – many of whom lost their seats in the May elections – tried every manoeuvre possible to avoid being held to account for the failures.
A similar situation exists on money waste on the Lendal bridge/Coppergate closures and the failed wide area 20 mph project.
An all party scrutiny Committee will consider what type of inquiry to conduct into the budget and project management of the York Councils Tour de France responsibilities.
The issue remains a live one as similar events may be suggested in the future. A Tour De Yorkshire event held at the beginning of May produced a mixed reaction form City Centre shopkeepers several of whom blamed the event for untypically low Bank Holiday takings.
The report into the option available for the scrutiny of the issue can be read by clicking here. The meeting, which will be open to the public, takes place on 22nd June
In total the Tour de Yorkshire event cost local taxpayers £1.3 million.
Sparse crowd for Grand Departy
Sceptics expect many of those responsible for the financial disaster to stand down from the Council – or be defeated at the polls – meaning that they may escape the consequences of the their negligence.
Cllr Ian Cuthbertson, Lib Dem Spokesperson for Leisure, Culture and Tourism, had submitted a request for a review into the “planning, promotion and delivery” of City of York Council organised events for last year’s Tour De France.
These included the £187,000 loss-making ‘Grand Departy’ music concert at Huntington Stadium.
Originally, a review was given the green light last year. However, at this week’s Learning & Culture Overview and Scrutiny Committee Labour and Conservative councillors supported moves to delay the inquiry until after May’s local elections and after that month’s inaugural Tour De Yorkshire.
Cllr Ian Cuthbertson, commented:
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Tour De France launch dinner in Ripon Cathedral
The report rightly highlights the positive benefits which the event produced. Not least among these were the 200,000 spectators in the City and the international publicity which the City received as well as an estimated £8 million injected into the local economy.
The latter figure is estimated and does not seek to relate benefits to the £1.8 million that the taxpayer paid for the event.
That was the largest amount that the York Council has spent on a single leisure event.
To put it into context, a similar number of people visited the City for the “Royal Ascot at York” event held in 2005. That event cost taxpayers less than 10% of the TdF costs (with most costs relating to traffic management).
The reports are weakest in the areas which caused some local residents concern.
A much hyped claim was that merchandising, car parking and camping sales would produce a “profit” to off set costs. That simply didn’t happen.
Sparse crowd for Grand Departy
Many decisions such as the location of the event “hubs” were delayed before being imposed on unwilling neighbourhoods.
Some failures – post start entertainment and big screen blackouts – could have been avoided with better planning.
But the conspiracy of silence about the £180,000 Grand Departy decision making process remains the most significant outstanding issue. Only a passing reference is made to this event in the reports.
Hopefully the Scrutiny Committee meeting on Wednesday will finally insist on answers being given to the outstanding questions about the Grand Departy. When we know the answers, a more informed decision can be made about the level of public subsidy – if any – which should be given to the proposed “Tour de Yorkshire” (TdY).
Ironically that event is scheduled to hit the City on a busy bank holiday only 3 days before the Council elections are scheduled to take place.
Sparse crowd for Grand Departy
The event lost £187,000.
Officials attending the meeting admitted that mistakes had been made.
The Culture Scrutiny committee agreed to look at the processes – including decisions on marketing and safety – connected with the event as well as the operation of the spectator hubs and camping arrangements.
All the opposition parties supported the review although two Labour Councillors at the meeting opposed holding an inquiry.
A report will also go to the Cabinet in January.
The meeting was held in public and can be viewed on the Council web cam.
Liberal Democrat calls for an inquiry into the ‘Grand Departy’ music concert are to be heard at crunch scrutiny meeting tomorrow.
Cllr Ian Cuthbertson, Lib Dem Spokesperson for Leisure, Culture and Tourism, last week submitted a request for a review into the “planning, promotion and delivery” of City of York Council organised events for the Tour De France, including the £187,000 loss-making ‘Grand Departy’ concert.
A decision on whether to proceed with the review will be taken at tomorrow’s Learning & Culture Overview & Scrutiny Committee.
Since the review request was submitted new concerns have emerged over public safety at the Grand Departy. Minutes from the July meeting of the council’s Safety Advisory Group (which took place just days after the event) have highlighted problems.
These included locked fire exits, blocked emergency exits and no licence to allow people to use covered seating areas. The Group said it would not support a similar event proposed at such late notice.
“Until these budget and safety issues are properly addressed many people will have little faith in the council to successfully run any large-scale cultural event.”
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The meeting comes as the York Council has been forced to reveal more detailed costs of the Grand Departy. Details can be downloaded by clicking here. The papers reveal that the costs of the stage, amplification and lighting alone cost more than total ticket sale income.
The Council have also released details of how over £60,000 was spent on other aspects of the “cultural festival”. Click here to download
. Details of the scrutinty meeting can be found here: .
The Committee is made-up of 3 Labour councillors, 1 Lib Dem, 1 Conservative, 1 Green (Chair) and 1 Independent.
Cllr Cuthbertson, who will make the case for an inquiry at tomorrow’s meeting, commented:
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With yet another major York Council project falling behind schedule, and hopelessly over budget, there are growing calls for a review of project management processes in the City.
Poppleton Bar Roadworks delays
The latest budget overrun is reported on the A1237 Haxby – Wigginton cycle path. As well as major delays the project will now cost over £1.3 million compared to a budget of £700,000.
A Liberal Democrat spokesman said,
“It is time re-introduce regular project updates to the Councils monitoring committees.
Any significant delay – or cost overrun – of more than 10% must trigger a formal report in future.
We’d also like to see more openness in reporting with regular updates being posted on the Council’s web site”
As well as the cycle path, projects which would be subject to review include:
The Press are reporting that the Green Council Group Leader has now decided that there are questions about the Lendal Bridge trial which do need to be answered publicly. Despite voting last week against an Inquiry, he is apparently now saying that the Council’s Chief Executive should be asked to account for the mistakes at a “governance” committee meeting.
NB. The Lendal Bridge situation is also likely to be discussed at the Council meeting which is scheduled to be held on 11th December.
Liberal Democrat councillors are calling for an inquiry into the ‘Grand Departy’ music concert as part of a cross-party scrutiny review.
Meanwhile the minutes of two meetings of the Councils safety Advisory Group have confirmed that there was internal concern about the organisational arrangements for the concert.
Safety committee meeting July 2014 Click to read original minutes
The minutes suggest that, had the target audience numbers actually attended, then safety concerns could have been high.
The minutes of the meetings can be read by clicking the links below.
Safety Advisory Committee 30th June 2014 (pre concert)
Safety Advisory Group 23rd July 2014 (post concert)
Cllr Ian Cuthbertson, Lib Dem Spokesperson for Leisure, Culture and Tourism, has submitted an official request for a scrutiny review into the “planning, promotion and delivery” of council organised events for the Tour De France.
Last week it was revealed that City of York Council overspent its budget for the Tour by £60,000 with the ‘Events and Festivals’ programme losing taxpayers £252,000.
The poorly received ‘Grand Departy’ music concert at Huntington Stadium was the single biggest loss. The event cost £206,000 to stage but disappointing ticket sales meant only £19,000 in revenue was brought in, producing an overall loss of £187,000.
Cllr Cuthbertsoncommented: