The Council has finally admitted that the £46.2 million budget for the York Community Stadium will be overspent by £1.2 million.

Taxpayers had already taken a hit late last year when a payment for the lease of the commercial element of the scheme was reduced by £1.4 million.

It now looks like the final taxpayers bill will be £17 million.

When the scheme was originally conceived in 2010, it was expected that a contribution of £16.7 million from the developer of the neighbouring Vanguard shopping area, would cover the stadium construction costs.  This has proved not to be the cases as costs escalated in the intervening years.

The Council says that part of the cost will be offset by lower management payments this year to the operator (GLL)

A report goes on to say that the opening of the facility has “added internal costs that were not originally budgeted. The facility was originally due to open in Summer 2019 so the council has needed to retain the project team”.

The Council also says that there were changes to the design during the course of construction (additional signage, site boundary issues and cladding) which also added costs totally £458k.

The Council is hoping to get some compensation for the construction delays.

The stadium was 18 months late and has still not, because of COVID-19 regulations – been brought into use,