Business Improvement District for York city centre – taxpayers asked for £50,000 loan

…..but still no sign of help for sub-urban commercial centres like Front Street

Front Street snubbed again by York Council

The York Council’s Executive will be asked to support the successful implementation of the Business Improvement District (BID) in York at a meeting on Thursday 28 January.

The meeting comes after a ballot in November 2015 saw businesses across the city centre vote in favour of a new Business Improvement District, which will deliver over £800,000 in new investment for the city centre each year.

Executive will be asked to note a draft memorandum of understanding and baseline operating agreement for the Business Improvement District ahead of final terms being reached.

The Executive will also be asked to approve a cash flow loan of up to £50,000 to help support the creation of the Business Improvement District. It’s proposed this loan will be reimbursed in full by Summer 2016.

The business-led BID will take decisions on how to invest in the city centre and will focus on areas such as improving the cleanliness of the city centre, tackling anti-social behaviour and supporting businesses.

However the Council continues to ignore calls for regeneration initiatives in sub-urban retail areas like Front Street. Its Quango partner organisation “Make it York” is also entirely focused on the City centre area.

The Council report also outlines City of York Council’s annual contribution, via levy, of around £28,000 beginning in the 2016/17 financial year. The BID will however reimburse the administrative cost of levy collection up to £25,000.
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“Make it York” publish financial performance figures

“Make it York“, the wholly Council owned QUANGO responsible for economic development activities in the City, has finally published its financial performance figures for the period up to and including November.

The figures include income from the St Nicholas Fair and Illuminating York but the cost of staging the two events are not revealed.

While the figures suggest that the company is on course to make a small surplus during the current financial year, the covering notes include a warning that the recent floods may impact on the final out-turns.

The figures are being discussed at a meeting which is taking place tomorrow (Monday) at West Offices (5:30pm). The meeting is open to members of the public.

It is expected that managers from Make it York will update the stakeholder committee on the actions that they took to help businesses that were being flooded on the evening of 26th December.

Residents will also want to know why plans to provide children’s rides at the St Nicholas Fair were abandoned?

: click to access

“Make it York” in the dock

Make it York web site

Rather awkwardly for York’s least favourite QUANGO, “Make it York” will have to face a meeting of its Shareholder’s Committee on 18^th January.

The Shareholders Committee has so far failed to get to grips with the fact that the, wholly Council owned, organisation was launched without any meaningful performance indicators being agreed.

Those that there are, rely heavily on – largely opaque – economic development stats and “Visit York” tourist numbers.

Many of the statistics, due to be reported to the meeting, are missing anyway.

It remains to be seen what the, so far largely sycophantic, Councillors on the committee make of the organisations failure to support business on the 26^th and 27^th of December when severe floods hit parts of the retail area.

Those looking to the Make it York website for information would have been disappointed.

It was to be a week before the organisation began to raise its head above the flood waters.

It is also the first meeting since the organisation broke its promise to provide a replacement attraction for the traditional Christmas carousel that they evicted from Parliament Street during the St. Nicholas Fair.

The alternative ride never materialised leaving many parents and children disappointed.

It was, however, good news for drinkers, of course, as a bar in a tent appeared on Parliament Street.

The organisations “narrative report” makes no mention of the problems caused by the floods much less detailing the organisations response.

“Make it York” also continues to ignore sub-urban shopping areas like Acomb.

With the Councils budget meetings coming up shortly and money tight, the Make it York grant seems to offer a risk free economy. As a minimum the governance and management arrangements for the organisation need a major rethink.

Officials advise committee to snub residents petitions

The Council’s Scrutiny management committee decided yesterday to ignore the concerns of residents who had signed petitions criticising the “Make it York” organisation.

They had been told by officials in a report that Make it York made decisions on “commercial” grounds; conveniently forgetting that the organisation is wholly owned by the Council itself. The matter has apparently been referred to another Leisure scrutiny committee for consideration.

TiPi bars being erected on Parliament Street

The committee was told by MIY that there was no room on Parliament Street for a children’s attraction and claimed that this was because of pressure for “stall space”.

They conveniently forgot to mention that two “TiPi’s” are currently being erected on Parliament Street.

They will serve alcoholic refreshments.

It has also been confirmed that the supposedly independent “Make it York” shareholders group also failed, at the meeting that they held on 5^th October, to consider either of the Quangos major PR blunders. MIY angered residents by deciding – without consultation – to remove the fountain from Parliament Street before then unilaterally deciding to ban the traditional Christmas carousel from its normal Parliament Street/St. Sampson’s Square locations.

The draft minutes of the meeting confirm that the concerns weren’t even discussed.

Quango policing group publishes agenda for Monday meeting

The “Make it York” shareholders committee has finally published the agenda for its meeting on Monday.

That is only two working days before the meeting is due to start.

It gives residents who want to address the meeting only 24 hours to register to speak.

Supporters of retaining the Christmas carousel ride in Parliament Street were hoping to make their case to the panel of 5 Councillors although the short notice may deter them (they will be making representation to the full council meeting later in the week anyway)

There are only two items on the agenda.

Performance out-turn April to September 2015 click to enlarge

Financial figures show income £82,000 below budget in the period up to July.

Expenditure is lower so the company was in balance at that early stage of the year. The out turn disguises a significant shortfall in Shambles market rent payments.

The second item relates to performance against target.

The Council continues to be sharply critcised for failing to set KPIs for the events programme and the Shambles Market activities that MIY now supervises.

In any event, most of the first quarter indicators are blank. Even the traditional tourism monitors are largely missing.

So will the committee see through the prevarication and challenge the arrogant way that this organisation has gone about its business since April?

We will wait and see.

Christmas carousel vs open air bar battle – Debate on 8th October

York Christmas Carousel

Petitions containing over 2000 signatures supporting the retention of the Christmas children’s carousel ride in the Parliament Street area will be presented to the next York Council meeting on 8th October.

Tipi bar

The “on line” version of the petition has now closed.

Separately Make it York have announced details of the public bar which will replace the children’s attraction.

The issues relating to Make it York’s attitude to public consultation are also likely to be discussed at a “Shareholders” meeting taking place on 5th October.

This was the meeting which was supposed to have been held in public but for which the Council has so far failed to publish an agenda.

Council promises more transparency in Quango monitor as….

….Council officials trouser £9000 in Directors fees from “City of York Trading”

The York Council has said that its “Shareholder Group”, set up to monitor the performance of the new “Make it York” (MIY) Quango, will in future meet in public. The decision follows criticism of the Council for failing to establish, and publish, performance measures covering the whole of the new organisations remit.

Noticeably absent are any measures for City centre management and markets activities.

The Shareholder Group met in private on 6^th July. No minutes of the meeting have yet been published. Following a Freedom of Information request, background information has been published but it is unlikely that any taxpayer would easily find it on the Councils web site (Click here)

There is no evidence that the five Councillors involved in the shareholders group have challenged MIYs controversial plans to demolish the fountain in Parliament Street or to re-site the popular children’s Christmas Carousel ride.

The next meeting of the group will apparently take place on 5^th October. However the group does not yet even appear in the list of committees published by the Council.

All in all, it is time for senior Councillors to get a grip of the processes being used to ensure that the £918,000 of taxpayer’s money – handed to MIY – is being spent wisely and following proper consultation with residents.

City of York Trading (CYT)

Following the decision of the Councils Executive to ask for more information about City of York Trading it has emerged that two Council officials have been paid £9000 in connection with their Directorships of the Company. The Company is wholly owned by the York Council and mainly matches surplus resources to vacancies in the public sector.

The information emerged in response to a Freedom of Information request.

Directors at the York Council have a salary of around £100,000 a year while Assistant Directors receive about £75,000.

It is unclear who authorised the additional payments, when and for what reason?

One of the more controversial aspects of the revised constitution for CYT (and MIY) were proposals to remunerate Directors. It had been assumed that this would not apply to Council officials or Councillors, but this may not be the intention.

No declarations of interest were made in the papers prepared for the Executive meeting on 27^th August.

Recently, Councillors in York have been more open in declaring their financial interests and the hospitality they have accepted. Current listings confirm that none have received remuneration from local Quangos like those that now run our libraries, theatre and museums..

Proper declarations have also been made for outside bodies such as the LGA and Yorwaste on which the Council has a shareholder interest, although there is currently no requirement to reveal the level of any remuneration received.

Christmas children’s carousel petition tops 2000 signatures

York Christmas Carousel

A petition, asking for York’s traditional Christmas Carousel ride to be retained in St Sampsons Square, has gained the support of over 2000 people.

It will be formally handed over to the York Council on Friday at 2:00pm (West Offices).

The new “Make it York” (MIT) organisation has been criticised for trying to force the ride to move onto an alternative – less accessible – site at the Eye of York.

It emerged today that senior managers at MIY have not been prepared to enter into discussions with the ride operator Warringtons over the alternative location.

It is understood that a “take it or leave” option was put forward in August but that there has been no subsequent negotiation

An electronic version of the petition can still be signed. Click here to access it.

NB A response to a Freedom Of Information probe into the objectives set for the – wholly Council owned – “Make it York” organisation is expected to be published later this week.

Carousel petition gathers 500 signatures in one week

A petition, in support of retaining children’s rides in St Sampson’s Square at Christmas, has attracted 500 signatures.

This petition will be available to sign for another week.

The paper based petition, which can be signed at the Carousel, supplements the Epetition which can be found on the Councils web site, and which will be available for another 3 weeks.

It is hoped it will persuade the Council and “Make It York” to change their plans to allocate the children’s site to another – alcohol based – “festive attraction”.

Make it York – the unanswered questions

The confused relationship between York’s newest QUANGO “Make it York” (MIY) and the Council will be up for discussion at a meeting taking place later in the week.

A scrutiny committee will consider how the new organisation will be held to account.

In April MIY took over management responsibilities for tourism, “Science City” and activities in the “City Centre” including the market.

The Council has agreed to pay Make it York £918,000 in 2015/16 and £898,000 in both 2016/17 and 2017/18.

In return, Make it York is required to reimburse the Council £374,000 representing the net income that the council historically collected from City centre Markets and events.

click to enlarge

The funding is not ring fenced or stipulated against any particular category of spend.

An unseemly row developed a couple of weeks ago when MIY announced that the fountain in Parliament Street would be demolished to make way for more specialist market stalls. There had been no prior consultation before the event.

The Council has so far refused to publish a table indicating the performance indicators that the new organisation will be judged on. What has emerged into the public arena this week is a copy of the Service Level Agreement apparently signed off by all parties in March. Click here to download

It includes a very limited number of PIs. (See table right)

There are also a number of “self reported” performance measures (which will be difficult to verify)

Examples include

“creating 700 jobs through interventions, with at least 500 estimated to be paid above national median wage (currently £11.62 per hour)”
“2,000,000 unique visitors accessing promotional or informative material about York for visiting, culture and events through channels in the ownership and influence of the company, e.g. VisitYork.org (total from web / twitter / youtube / visitor information centre / face to face etc) each year”

Noticeably lacking are numeric targets for City centre management activities.

Lack of transparency has always been one of the key issues with QUANGOS. Bodies like MIY, which are receiving large amounts of Council taxpayer’s money, need to be tied down on measurable – and independently verifiable – numeric targets.

It seems that part of the process hasn’t yet been completed.

It is therefore hardly surprising that there is a lack of baseline data which should have been published in April.

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