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Loss on Huntington Stadium concert confirmed as £187,000

Event only took £12,000 in ticket sales

The York Council has finally revealed that it lost an astonishing £187,000 on the concert that it staged at the Huntington Stadium on 4th July.

It spent £82,000 on artists fees and £94,000 on “infrastructure costs”

An “event management fee” of £18,000 was also spent

The Council went to extraordinary lengths to try to hide the scale of the failure with several Freedom of Information requests knocked back on largely spurious grounds and others still outstanding

With Labour now having lost their majority, officials have been ordered to reveal the full figures.

The mistakes will lead to renewed calls for the Cllr Crisp – who is responsible for Leisure activities – to resign.

She had been awarded a “medal” for her work on the event.

The costs given to leading Councillors were:

"Grand Departy" costs click to enlarge

“Grand Departy” costs click to enlarge

NB. The Labour Cabinet on 1st October 2013 set a budget for the Tour de France of £1,664k, to cover the cost of the event, funded from a variety of sources.

The outturn shows that the final cost of the event totalled £1,827k. In addition there was an up front payment of a “hosting fee”.

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Cllr Keith Aspden, Lib Dem Group Leader commented:

 “There are serious questions to be asked as to how the council lost money on the Tour De France. The botched camping plans and the last-minute decision to hold a concert at Huntington Stadium have lost taxpayers £33,000 and £187,000 respectively.

“The Liberal Democrats argued all along that Labour needed to produce a proper public business case backed-up with detailed financial plans for these events. Instead Labour shrouded the plans in secrecy and took decisions behind-closed-doors without proper public involvement or opposition councillor scrutiny.

 “Given this, it is unsurprising that these council organised events have lost money and will now worryingly hit the communities and neighbourhoods budget by £60,000. 

 “Despite the mistakes made by the Labour run council, I am pleased that overall the Tour De France has had a positive impact on York businesses and the wider Yorkshire economy.”

Well fancy that – forgetful York Councillor has flash back

Given a medal for “leadership”

Cllr Crisp declaration list 7th July 2014 click to enlarge

Cllr Crisp declaration list 7th July 2014 click to enlarge

It seems that we were wrong earlier in the month when we praised Cllr Crisp for giving up her party lifestyle.

In a hurried change to the Declaration of Interests, which every Councillor must update each month, she has now recalled an event which took place in Durham last November.

She admits receiving hospitality at a Lumeire event organised by the Durham Council. What benefits York gains from social events like these is open to question.

What is not open to any doubt is that Councillors with a poor record keeping history need to be especially careful about transparency in their actions .

The latest list does reveal that Cllr Crisp claims to have led on organising the York stage of the Tour de France – for which she has received a “medal”!

Cllr Crisp declaration list 28th July 2014 click to enlarge

Cllr Crisp declaration list 28th July 2014 click to enlarge

Presumably she will now accept responsibility for those elements of the event – like the Grand Departy – which didn’t go so well?

We are fortunate, though, in having someone in charge of leisure who spends so much time undertaking research at York Races.

No doubt she will be putting forward views on how the alcohol fuelled violence, seen in the City over the weekend, can be better controlled in future?