Welcome to Yorkshire administration revelations pose more questions - The Yorkshire Post says

Companies and councils owed money by WtY - including a local government pension fund - are expected to lose out on more than £1m, The Yorkshire Post has today revealed.

An administrator’s proposal has shown that only half of the company’s £2m debts are due to be repaid.

What’s more, it has also been revealed that WtY began at least considering the prospect of entering administration more than six months ago. A report by administrators Armstrong Watson shows the company was initially engaged by Welcome to Yorkshire to provide “ongoing assistance” in September 2021 after the future of the tourism agency “became uncertain”.

In January, they provided advice to WtY which included a suggestion of going into administration - a course of action that was subsequently taken at the start of March after council leaders confirmed the private company would no longer be provided public funding.

It is fair to say that former chief executive, James Mason, and ex-chairman, Peter Box, have questions to answer about why the troubled agency did not go into administration earlier if that would have given paying parties the chance of recovering any losses.

Given the amount of public funds that went into propping up WtY, it is not too much for those responsible for its closure to be submitted to further scrutiny.

However, perhaps the person who knows most about why it is ending in such a sad fashion would be Mr Mason’s predecessor Sir Gary Verity, who resigned on health grounds in March 2019 amid allegations about expenses spending.

Whoever can provide the answers must do so for all the authorities and businesses which put their faith in the company.