IF there is one topic guaranteed to get York people hot under the collar, it is delays over the city’s long-awaited community stadium.

After years of hold-ups and false starts, the project suffered yet another body blow this summer.

There had already been a damaging row over whether the York City Knights would be allowed to continue playing at Bootham Crescent until the stadium was built.

Then, in August, came news that Vue Cinemas were to seek a judicial review over the city planners’ decision to allow a larger multiplex at Monks Cross than was originally approved – a move which threatened further delays to the stadium project.

Many might have been beginning to wonder whether the ill-fated stadium would ever see the light of day.

Well, City of York Council’s new chief executive Mary Weastell has something to say about that.

“The stadium absolutely is going to be delivered,” she says, in her first in-depth interview with The Press since taking over the council hot-seat.

“There is a massive political commitment for this. Politicians have brought me in to deliver. I will deliver. Watch this space.”

York Press:

In the hot seat: Mary Weastell at West Offices, the city council HQ

It’s a pretty uncompromising statement of intent. Largely because of that judicial review, however – and also partly because of uncertainties caused by Brexit – there is still real doubt over exactly when the stadium will be built.

It was scheduled to be ready in time for York City to start playing there in September 2018.

At the moment, however, the city council and other partners involved in the project are having to play a “wait and see” game.

“We will have to reassess our position once we know the outcome of the review,” Mrs Weastell admits.

And what does that mean? It means being prepared, she says. “I cannot say, at the moment, that there won’t be any changes in the time period. But the commitment is absolutely still there to deliver. The stadium needs to happen, for everybody’s benefit – for the community, for residents. We just need to do it.”

York Press:

We just need to do it: artist's impression of how the new community stadium might look

We just need to do it – six words many people in York have been saying for years. But it is good to hear the council’s new chief executive restating them so forcefully.

City of York Council hasn’t always been that good at delivering on major projects. We still don’t have an adopted local plan, for example; there was the mishandled attempt to restrict traffic on Lendal Bridge; and longer ago there was the disastrous support for a major shopping development at Coppergate Riverside that was eventually thrown out by a planning inspector.

There are plenty of things York does well, of course. This is actually a pretty great city in which to live, let’s not forget. We have good schools. We’ve been successful at attracting some major employers to come here and stay here. And even the move to the city council’s new West offices HQ was handled smoothly after the initial false start of plans for a new HQ in Hungate.

But it tends to be the delays and failures that people notice.

Mrs Weastell insists she was brought here by politicians to deliver, and that’s what she’s going to do: not just on the community stadium, but on a whole slew of major projects, from getting the local plan adopted to developing York Central and the so-called “southern gateway” project to revamp Piccadilly and the Eye of York. There’s also the small matter of maintaining essential front-line services with a massively reduced budget.

York Press:

Aerial view of the massive York Central site

It’s a challenging job, she admits. and it is one made even more difficult by the fact that York people are notoriously hard to please.

She has picked up on that already, after just a few weeks in the job. “York is a very opinionated city, in the sense of people having very strong opinions.”

She’s also noticed that, on certain things, people don’t trust the council.

That may, she says, be connected to the authority’s perceived lack of openness and transparency. But it’s something she’s determined to change – she has already appointed a new head of communications.

There will always be some areas of council activity that have to be kept confidential, for reasons of commercial sensitivity perhaps, or data protection, she says. “But if we cannot give out information, we have to think about explaining why. And if we get things wrong, we will be honest about that.

“We want to be open, honest and transparent. I think the renewed commitment by the politicians to be a listening council is the way forward.”

She wants the people of York to see progress being made. In Selby, the building of the new leisure centre was monitored by a webcam: something she’s not ruling out when work eventually begins on the community stadium.

She has a tough challenge ahead but she says she has a “tremendous work ethic” learned from her mum, a Middlesbrough mum-of-seven. “And I’ve got stacks of energy.”

She is also determined to supply the continuity and the stability the city council needs, she says.

After a career as first a council lawyer and then as a senior council manager at a string of local authorities across the North East – Middlesbrough, Wakefield, Bradford and Selby among them – she says she’s here to stay, as long as the city wants her, adding: “This is a lifetime job!”

MARY WEASTELL ON...

York Central

Labour party campaigners in Holgate warned last week that grand plans to redevelop the huge York Central site behind York Railway Station were “a charter for banks, property developers and rich people wishing to move out of London” but failed to meet the needs of ordinary York people.

“We want to see a significant part of the site developed for social and affordable housing,” said John Neilson, chairman of the Holgate Labour branch.

Does Mrs Weastell have a view on that? She isn’t about to get drawn into a political row, merely pointing out we aren’t yet at the stage of drawing up a detailed masterplan for York Central.

So what is the timescale? “More details will be shared throughout the next year moving to a fully detailed masterplan within the year.” Other stakeholders including the city council will be involved in that process, she adds.

Freedom of Information requests

Officials at City of York Council are frequently so inundated with Freedom of Information (FOI) requests that they are prevented from getting on with doing other things, Mrs Weastell says. Often people put in an FOI request without even bothering to ask the council for information first.

That is hugely wasteful of council time and money, she says, because it takes much more time to formally go through the process of answering an FOI than it does to respond to a simple question. “So that takes our time away from delivering on things that really matter.”

It would be much better if people were to try to ask the council first, she said. A good starting point is the authority’s customer contact centre: 01904 551550 or ycc@york.gov.uk

York Press:

If you have a question, just ask: City of York Council's West Offices HQ

Budget constraints

The city council’s budget has seen huge cuts in recent years, Mrs Weastell points out: over the last six years alone savings of £69 million have had to be made.

The net budget now stands at £118 million, instead of the £187 million it would have been without cuts. The savings represent a cut of about 37 per cent in six years. “These are very very difficult times.”

The situation is made worse by unfair funding formulas, which often see York “penalised” for being perceived as a comparatively well-off city with less poverty than many other large urban centres.

When it comes to school funding, for example, state schools in York get £4,000 per pupil, while state schools in some areas of the country get double that.

The only solution to this is to keep lobbying central government, and hammering home to Whitehall what it is like to live, work and grow up in York, she says – to remind them that just because York is a great place to live in many ways, doesn’t mean we don’t have areas of deprivation.

Floods

The Government announced in March there would be an extra £45 million to enable York to strengthen its flood defences following the disastrous Boxing Day floods last year, in addition to £10m already committed for repairs and upgrades to the Foss Barrier.

Will that be enough?

It is a long-term issue, Mrs Weastell says – and one which it will be vital to keep on lobbying government about.

But we also need to start thinking about long-term strategies to tackle flooding.

Water is no respecter of boundaries, she points out – and the water which pours down the Ouse to flood communities like York and, further downstream at Selby, comes from high up in the hills. “So the solutions may not be in York.”

Communities like York which are at risk of flooding also need to learn to be more flood-resilient, she says. Flooding isn’t about to go away, and will be part of our lives in the future.

Her role as chief executive

Salaried council staff – including the chief executive – are “all here to serve the politicians and deliver their priorities,” Mrs Weastell says.

But those politicians are themselves elected to serve the people of York. So how can she help them to do that?

By providing proper evidence for decision-making, she says, so council decisions are grounded on good evidence. “In that way, they are making the right decisions in the interests of the community and residents.”

That applies whichever party or coalition of parties is in power, she says.

She believes it is vital for council officers to maintain good relationships with councillors of all parties, including those in opposition. For her, that means regular briefing meetings with opposition councillors. She calls it a ‘no surprise policy’. “It’s about sharing information and enabling people to understand what is going on.”

LAWYER'S ROUTE TO THE TOP

Mary Weastell was born and brought up in Middlesbrough, one of seven children.

Her father was a teacher who, in the Second World War, had been a young RAF navigator.

She studied law at Teesside University and became a local authority lawyer, eventually moving into senior council management. She has worked for several councils across the North East, including Middlesbrough, Wakefield, Bradford, Selby and North Yorkshire.

Her last job was as chief executive of Selby District Council and assistant chief executive of North Yorkshire County Council.