Welcome to Yorkshire is handed another £660,000 by councils

COUNCIL LEADERS have agreed to release a further £660,000 in public money to embattled tourism agency Welcome to Yorkshire.

It came as its new chief executive said he was planning major changes at the organisation.

Welcome to Yorkshire, part funded by money from local councils, has struggled to recover from the fallout from ex-chief executive Sir Gary Verity’s resignation last March on health grounds amid bullying and expenses allegations.

His replacement, James Mason, started this week. He was appointed late last year.

Mr Mason told council leaders on the North and West Yorkshire business-rates committee he was disappointed by what he had seen so far.

He said: “There are so many challenges. I am disappointed how the organisation still works internally – that needs to be addressed quickly – but it is something we are on with.

“There are lots of structural changes we need to make before we can start looking at being a tourism agency again.”

Mr Mason also spoke of the need to recruit people from other parts of the region, as many of the staff were from York or Leeds.

He later added: “The current organisation is not representative of Yorkshire.

“That doesn’t mean we will forcibly change it overnight because we can’t, but at the same time it hasn’t been fit for purpose and therefore it will be a legacy that will take some time to turn round.

“This is a juggernaut slowing down – but it is still going at some pace.”

Welcome to Yorkshire chairman Peter Box, the former leader of Wakefield Council, added: “We will be changing – we spoke of the need for strict financial controls.

“We need to engage much better with the public. I intend to ask the board that meetings be webcasted or in public.

“People can see for themselves then that we are accountable.”

At a meeting last October, the business-rates panel agreed to make £1m funding available after it was suggested the organisation was reliant on the money.

Councillors agreed to make the funding in three parts – October 2019, December 2019 and February 2020, provided the organisation made improvements, including appointing a new chief executive.

This week they agreed to release the final two-thirds of the £1m. The agency will submit regular reports to the committee.