Council officials decided a week ago to appoint an additional officer who will “lead on the Council’s transparency and information governance arrangements”.
The decision to appoint the officer was taken behind closed doors.
No previous information about the proposal was published.
Such information as there is on the duties of the new appointment can be read here.
It appears that providing “customer feedback” will be a part of their role.
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.
Special Constables are volunteers, who commit at least four hours of their time per week to keeping communities safe. “Specials” go through a rigorous training programme before they qualify to go out on the beat, where they work alongside regular police officers covering a wide range of different duties – anything from policing public events, to tackling anti-social behaviour or attending emergency incidents.
North Yorkshire Police currently has more than 160 Special Constable volunteers, who come from a wide range of backgrounds and professions, including teachers, airline cabin crew, office workers and archaeologists.
The force is hoping to recruit a further 100 Specials as part of a wider programme to boost the number of citizens involved in policing, and enhance links with all parts of the community in North Yorkshire.
