Why this Welcome to Yorkshire accounts delay needs resolving – The Yorkshire Post says

Not only did he face an organisation in turmoil – both financially and reputationally – in the wake of his predecessor Sir Gary Verity’s departure but then the Covid pandemic compounded this crisis.

And while 2021 will be little easier, the subtle shift of emphasis from cycling to walking will be a test of Mr Mason’s effectiveness as head of an organisation now smaller in size and stature.

However his ebullience needs to be placed in the context of WTY’s one glaring omission from 2020 – the failure to publish its accounts for the 18 months between March 2018 and September 2019.

Now it argues in its defence that it is not alone in this, and that Covid has complicated matters, but this is an organisation that promised to be totally transparent in the wake of the Verity scandals.

Not only does this uncertainty sit uneasily alongside the effective £1m-plus bailout sanctioned by Yorkshire councils at a time when public funds are still facing unprecedented demands, but it will also be questioned by those in the private sector who are considering whether to entrust Mr Mason and Welcome to Yorkshire with the stewardship of their money.

And, as The Yorkshire Post has previously set out, Welcome to Yorkshire’s work – and this county needs a dynamic marketing agency more than ever – will be stymied until it is in a position to consign its troubled recent past to history once and for all.

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