Tourist body on brink over funding crisis
Welcome to Yorkshire demands £1.4m from local councils to stay in business
WELCOME TO Yorkshire could be forced to close unless the region’s councils guarantee another £1.4m of taxpayers’ money by the end of today, can exclusively reveal.
Board members of the troubled tourism body will meet later after Peter Box, the organisation’s chair, wrote a blunt begging letter on Tuesday in which another emergency bailout of public funds was requested.
“Without commitment from all local authorities..., WTY simply cannot continue to operate and the WTY Board will be faced with a decision of not if but when to discuss the options of closing the organisation,” it said.
Last night it emerged that at least one authority – Tory-led Ryedale District Council – had responded by saying that it did not intend to stump up its share of the funding, which is £33,000, because it was not sufficiently clear how the money would be spent.
Its leader Keane Duncan emailed Mr Box, and all other councils, and said that it felt like “a gun held to our heads”. He concluded that “the best thing for the public purse and for the tourism sector” might be for WTY to fold so a fresh start can be made.
When asked if WTY’s latest demand required the unanimous support of all 20 local authorities, Mr Box told this newspaper: “It depends how much support there is across Yorkshire for Welcome to Yorkshire to survive.”
The organisation has been mired in controversy and scandal since the resignation in March 2019 of former chief executive Sir Gary Verity – the man who brought Tour de France cycling to the county six years ago.
It had already been given an extra year to repay a £500,000 loan from North Yorkshire County Council before being deprived of £1m of business rates funding from North and West Yorkshire because councils in the two areas have seen a loss of income due to Covid-19. WTY’s decision to suspend membership fees created another shortfall of £400,000.
Now West Yorkshire councils are being asked to fund £550,000 while the combined figure for North Yorkshire is £450,000. South Yorkshire is being asked for £300,000 with £100,000 coming from East Yorkshire.
No details were available on how these amounts were calculated, but Mr Box’s letter was sent on Tuesday just as the Prime Minister was giving the green light for parts of the hospitality and leisure industries to reopen on July 4.
The request came a week after WTY unveiled its own plan to help the region’s £9bn a year tourism industry and days after the launch of a Yorkshire gift card scheme to support visitor venues.
Mr Box, the ex-leader of Wakefield Council, said that “emergency funds are needed to allow WTY to continue to operate”, implement a Covid-19 recovery plan and help generate new income.
“With tourism in Yorkshire supporting 225,000 jobs and contributing £9bn to the economy, the role of WTY to support the industry, help businesses and the wider economy...is a vital one.
“The WTY website Yorkshire. com receives over 10 million visitors a year and in May we saw 91 per cent of traffic from first time visitors suggesting a recovery opportunity is on its way. It is hoped that WTY can be here to act as the catalyst and spring board for the many businesses within the sector to benefit from this interest.
“The WTY Board meet on Thursday, June 25, and if we cannot guarantee funding, they will be asked to consider the closure of Welcome to Yorkshire at a time when we are seeing the reopening of the tourism sector.
“As I said previously, without commitment from all authorities across Yorkshire WTY will not be able to continue.” WTY’s chief executive, James Mason, tweeted last night: “This is not a bail out, these funds will aid recovery.”
But Masham tourism consultant Susan Briggs said evidence from across Europe suggested that “small organisations with limited funding and good industry relationships” could be as “effective” as larger bodies.
Emergency funds are needed to allow WTY to continue to operate.
Peter Box, Welcome to Yorkshire’s chair.
THE HEAD of Welcome to Yorkshire today appeals to councils to give the troubled tourism body one more chance to develop a new funding model.
Peter Box, the former leader of Wakefield Council, concedes that the Covid-19 crisis has made it harder to undertake the necessary reforms to the agency.
But he still believes that a subscription model is the way forward if his organisation is not to be so dependent on local government for at least half of its funding.
The Labour politician’s comments come as the WTY board prepare to meet later today after he wrote to every Yorkshire council and warned them that the organisation will fold unless they stump up £1.4m for the remainder of the financial year. Mr Box likened this to “buying time” in an interview with this newspaper.
WTY – which brought the Tour de France to the county in 2014 – is still coming to terms with the fallout from the resignation of former chief executive Sir Gary Verity in March last year in a series of scandals.
It then lost £1m of business rates funding that had been due from authorities in North and West Yorkshire – a consequence of Covid-19 is that many firms are currently exempt from such payments.
And the decision of WTY to suspend membership fees has cost the organisation another £400,000, explained Coun Box who was appointed to his current role late last year.
It comes after he sent his blunt letter to councils on Tuesday – the day Boris Johnson announced another relaxation of Covid lockdown restrictions – to say that his board will be asked “to consider the closure of Welcome to Yorkshire” without “commitment from all local authorities”.
“The majority of councils at the moment have agreed to support emergency funding, recognising the importance of tourism to Yorkshire’s economy,” Mr Box told The Yorkshire Post.
“This is important particularly bearing in mind the Government’s announcement on Tuesday that parts of the tourism industry can reopen in early July.”
Confirming the £1.4m was for the 2020-21 financial year, he said it would provide time to develop “a different funding model that will see Welcome to Yorkshire move away from dependency on local authority funding”.
He also said he understood the financial challenges facing all councils, but stressed that tourism was worth £9bn a year to the region.
However, he declined to comment on the next steps if councils like Ryedale, and, potentially, others, choose to withhold their share of money. In the case of Ryedale District Council, it is £33,000.
“I think it is too early to say. We need to wait and see what the entirety of the response is,” he said. “If, out of 20 Yorkshire authorities, if only didn’t feel able to support, a decision would have to be made.
“It depends how much support there is across Yorkshire for Welcome to Yorkshire to survive.”
Mr Box said the Covid-19 lockdown had denied him the opportunity to meet councils and develop a stronger working relationship with them.
He also accepted that more needed to be done to assure local authorities – and visitor attractions – that they were receiving value for money for their grants and subscriptions.
However, Mr Box offered no explanation for WTY’s failure to publish the minutes of its April board meeting, despite previous promises to be more transparent. “I don’t know about the April meeting,” he said.
Pressed about the absence of a public agenda for today’s board meeting, he responded: “There are no papers because it is primarily, and simply, to report on the financial situation and to give a report on the discussions held with local government.”
The crisis comes after The Yorkshire Post revealed that up to 20,000 jobs in North Yorkshire’s tourism and hospitality sector are set to be lost due to the effects of Covid-19, with a 13 per cent reduction in the local economy now being forecast.
We need to wait and see what the entirety of the response is.
Peter Box, chairman of Welcome to Yorkshire.