WtY misses deadline to file its accounts
TOURISM: Welcome to Yorkshire has missed an extended deadline to file its accounts as the organisation awaits decisions from local councils on whether they will back a £ 1.4m emergency bailout to save the firm.
Welcome to Yorkshire had been due to file its accounts by last Wednesday, September 30.
TROUBLED TOURISM agency Welcome to Yorkshire has missed an extended deadline to file its accounts as the organisation awaits decisions from local councils on whether they will back a £ 1.4m emergency bailout to save the firm.
Welcome to Yorkshire had been due to file its accounts for the 18 months between March 2018 and September 2019 by last Wednesday, September 30, but the deadline has not been met.
Chief executive James Mason said the decision not to file the company’s accounts at this stage had been made as it continues to await decisions from local councils on whether they will support the bailout plan, affecting whether the organisation can be classed as a going concern.
“The reduction in income from postponed or cancelled events along with a three- month payment freeze of business member subscriptions – which was common across many other sectors of the economy – combined with the uncertainty of local authority funding all meant that filing audited financial statements was very difficult,” he said.
“It has been widely reported that we have reached out to local authorities for funding to be able to continue operating. The board and leadership team have been focused on delivery of this funding and securing the future of the organisation which is still ongoing.”
As a private company, Welcome to Yorkshire is now liable for a fine of between £ 150 up to £ 1,500 depending on how late its filing to Companies House ends up being. Mr Mason said the intention is for the accounts to be filed by the end of 2020.
The organisation had previously been granted a six- month extension to an original deadline to publish its 2018/ 19 accounts by December 31 last year as it struggled to recover from the fallout to an expenses spending scandal that occurred under former chief executive Sir Gary Verity.
Since that extension, the company has been further hit by the impact of coronavirus and in June, chairman Peter Box wrote to local councils to ask them to participate in a bailout of the company after it missed out on £ 1m in expected business rates funding and £ 400,000 from membership fees that were suspended for three months because of the pandemic. Mr Box said that without the support of all local councils, the WtY board would “be faced with a decision of not if but when to discuss the options of closing the organisation”.
The company typically receives around half its income from the public sector, with the rest largely through private membership fees. While councils in North and South Yorkshire have agreed to put almost £ 600,000 towards the bailout and Kirklees Council has approved £ 79,000 towards it, some local authorities have refused to participate with others yet to make decisions.
Wakefield Council refused to pay the £ 78,000 it had been asked for, while East Riding, Ryedale and Hambleton Councils have also declined to pay in extra cash. Ryedale leader Keane Duncan said last month he believed Welcome to Yorkshire “should close its doors for good”.
Mr Mason said:“We are grateful for the support of those local authorities who value the role that the new WtY plays and can separate the legacy issues from the current leadership and direction of the business.
“We are also very grateful to our business members and we have seen a very positive recommencement of subscriptions in recent weeks which is testimony to how we have operated in the last six months.”
Filing audited financial statements was very difficult. James Mason, chief executive of Welcome to Yorkshire.