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Moment of truth on Grand Departy costs?

Angry mob - money back

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 wasted 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 from City Centre shopkeepers, several of whom blamed the event for untypically low Bank Holiday takings.

The report into the options 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.

Conservative and Labour councillors delay Grand Départy Inquiry

Liberal Democrat Councillors have criticised a decision to delay an inquiry into the Grand Departy‘ concert until after May’s Council elections.

Sparse crowd for  Grand Departy

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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“Grand Departy” Inquiry agreed

Only minutes before the York Council Leader resigned, a Council scrutiny committee had agreed to hold an Inquiry into the Grand Departy shambles.

Sparse crowd for  Grand Departy

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.

Crunch meeting to decide on ‘Grand Départy’ Inquiry as cost of stilt walkers revealed.

Liberal Democrat calls for an inquiry into the ‘Grand Departy’ music concert are to be heard at crunch scrutiny meeting tomorrow.

grand-departy

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.”

click to enlarge

click to enlarge

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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Lib Dems call for ‘Grand Départy’ Inquiry as minutes of safety committee raise further concerns

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

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:

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Pressure for inquiry into “Grand Departy” £187,000 flop grows

Sparse crowd for  Grand Departy

Sparse crowd for Grand Departy

Councillors are being pressured to hold a scrutiny inquiry into the Huntington Stadium concert – held on 4th July – which looks likely to cost York taxpayers £187,000.

The event was tagged onto the Tour De France but major questions remain unanswered about how –and why – the concert came to be added to a sports event programme.

Bills now available for scrutiny on the Council web site suggest that an event management company, based near Blackpool, was given the contract to organise the event.

Any inquiry is likely to look carefully at the tender arrangements and content of the event contracts.

Private meeting notes will be scrutinised with one key question being why no decision to cancel was taken, with tickets sales in the low hundreds, only a couple of weeks before the event was due to be staged?

When originally launched, the York Council had talked of 10,000 attending the concert.

Some tickets were heavily discounted. Councillors are likely to ask for details of any free tickets given away by organisers and Council officials.

The review might also look at the arrangements for buying and selling merchandise, while the £33,000 loss on “camping” arrangements may also be probed.

Any involvement by York in the proposed “Tour de Yorkshire”” is likely to be dependant on satisfactory answers being provided at a “Grand Departy” inquiry.

The Tour de Yorkshire is due to take place just 4 days before Council elections are held in the City

Grand Departy costs – York Council says it won’t release details until after the Westfield by election poll has taken place

Sparse crowd for  Grand Departy

Sparse crowd for Grand Departy

Three months after a party took place at the Huntington Stadium, the Council still claims that it does know how much income it received from ticket sales.

The budget costs of the 5 hour event were revealed as £228,000 in a response to a Freedom of Information request in August.

It beggars belief that the Council does not yet know how much the event cost and what bill Council Taxpayers will have to pick up.

In an internal review, of responses to an FOI request from former Council Leader Steve Galloway, the Council has admitted irregularities with officials apparently having incorrectly quoted national legislation to justify a cover up.

They have also apologized for delays in dealing with correspondence.

But they now say that a report will only be made to the Council’s Cabinet on the details of the flop in November; 2 months after it was originally scheduled.

A question on ticket sales has been put on the agenda for the Council meeting taking place on 9th October by Cllr Nigel Ayre.

This is the kind of obstructive secrecy that will be swept away if Labour lose their majority after the by election poll which takes place on 16th October.

The Council’s email to Steve Galloway says;
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York “Grand Departy” budget was £228,000.

A response to a Freedom of Information request has revealed that the budgeted costs of putting on the Grand Departy concert at the Huntington Stadium on July 4th was £228,000.

Sparse crowd for  Grand Departy

Sparse crowd for Grand Departy

The Council have so far refused to say how much the concert actually cost or what income was received.

Further FOI requests have been submitted but it seems that the Council – which must know by now how much the event cost – are going to hold out until the end of September before providing details.

The Concert was advertised as having a capacity of 10,000 but only a thousand or so turned up with many of the £25 tickets having to be heavily discounted.

It looks like the Council will say all decisions were taken on the delegated authority of one of its Directors although the FOI response does confirm that Cabinet members were fully informed  about the events progress at each stage.