An audit report into the 2014 ‘Grand Departy’ concert has criticised the handling of the event by the previous Labour Council saying there were “no understanding of the risks”.

Liberal Democrat Cllr Ian Cuthbertson has consistently called for a review into the planning, promotion and delivery of council organised events for the 2014 Tour De France in York. These events included the £187,000 loss-making ‘Grand Departy’ concert at Huntington Stadium.

Now a highly-critical report from internal auditors Veritau has cast fresh light on the matter. The damning report reveals that detailed planning for the concert only began three months before. It says that this “seems to be far too short a lead time to be able to successfully plan and deliver a concert of this scale”.

Auditors confirm that Labour Cabinet members were “enthusiastic” about the event behind-closed-doors, but gave “no clear framework to guide officer decisions” and it was “concerning that officers were expected to undertake inherently risky commercial activity without a formal member decision”.

The report raises concerns about a lack of transparency under Labour, saying “there are few records available that show the basis for decisions around commercial activity or the Grand Departy. This is bad practice – there is little transparency, members and officers cannot be held to account, and the council is unable to learn lessons”.

On the commercial plans, the report confirms there was a “lack of clear responsibility for overseeing commercial activity…(and) little detailed scrutiny”. It says there is no evidence that the plans “were robust or subject to sufficient challenge” and “it doesn’t seem that detailed research was undertaken”. Auditors concluded that they found “no evidence” that the commercial projections for the concert were realistic.

An example of the commercial problems is given by the Auditors when they reveal that “the council purchased fan packs containing a bag, t-shirt, lanyard and bandana for resale from ASO (Tour organisers) for a wholesale price of £20.83. ASO stipulated that these should be sold for a retail price of £55.00. However, on the day, ASO‟s own merchandise sellers were selling the same packs for £20.00”.

The report says the council lacked the “specific expertise” to run the event and “no advice was sought externally” while “personality clashes” hit the preparations. It concludes that “ultimately ticket sales were low, and the concert was poorly attended”. In compiling the report, auditors confirmed that they had to rely on “anecdotal” evidence as there was “a lack of documentary evidence”. They also say that “some of the accounts given were contradictory”.