LAST week’s editorial questioned whether the proposed North Yorkshire County Council “events” business could be considered legitimate when competing with private enterprise (D&S Times, Apr 15).
The use of public money and resources to effectively underwrite the success of the council venture is indeed questionable and I suggest the sentiments expressed in last week’s D&S are not simply consigned to the newspaper archives. This is a serious matter which goes way beyond utilisation of public assets to fund a leisure/wedding initiative and demands a response from North Yorkshire County Council executive on where they propose to draw the line.
Perhaps they could start by providing the D&S with the business plan on which this venture is based. Only if the plan suggests a business is actually viable without manpower and running costs presented as a freebie from existing resources should the executive even consider it as appropriate.
The sentiments of replacing central funding by local government enterprise may be genuine, but it begs far more questions, primarily “what else is in the pipeline?”
Council leader Carl Les needs to make a public statement.
B Forbes, Thornton le Moor, Northallerton
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