Council leader says no decision has been made to back new tourism body to replace Welcome to Yorkshire

Denise Jeffery told fellow councillors that she has not been involved in discussions over the creation of a new organisation to replace the original Welcome to Yorkshire.

Coun Jeffery publically dismissed a media report which stated that regional leaders planned to have a new county tourism body in place by spring.

She told a full council meeting: “Some of you may have read in the press, I was a bit surprised to see it myself, that we have all agreed to support a new Welcome to Yorkshire.

“Well this council hasn’t supported that and we haven’t had the discussion.

“So if anyone is thinking that we have agreed something, we haven’t.

“We will have to make a decision on whether we want to do that.”

“It did say that there had been a meeting and it had all been agreed.

“Well that is not the case for Wakefield. I just wanted you to know that.”

It was reported last week that the Yorkshire and Humber Leaders Board is aiming to have a new tourism body operating by April, with its work overseen by Barnsley Council.

Precise details of the new destination management organisation (DMO) are yet to be determined.

The original Welcome to Yorkshire, which was a private sector company but reliant on millions in public funding largely through local councils, went into administration in March last year.

It came after local authority leaders said they would no longer fund it following a series of financial and reputational scandals.

In September 2020, senior councillors in Wakefield refused to help bail out the troubled agency.

The council’s officers had advised paying £78,000 of taxpayer cash.

At that time, the organisation was in dire financial straits and was seeking a £1.4m emergency payout.

But although council officers backed the bailout in the interests of jobs in the region, cabinet members said they believed the money would be better spent locally.