THE new head of tourism agency Welcome to Yorkshire has warned big changes need to be made to the organisation, which believes ‘hasn’t been fit for purpose’.

James Mason only started work as the new chief executive of the organisation this week, but he told a meeting of regional council leaders he was ‘disappointed’ with how the company currently worked, and pledged to make ‘structural changes’ to the organisation.

The comments were made at a meeting of the North and West Yorkshire business rates committee, during a discussion on what changes had been made to the company – which is part-funded by money from local councils – since recommendations were made by the board back in October 2019.

A report, which went before the panel, claimed progress has been made as a new chief executive, as well as new board members, have since been appointed.

Former Bradford City chief James Mason to run Welcome To Yorkshire

Mr Mason, while optimistic, warned he had already identified changes that needed to be made, including altering the internal workings of the company, as well as employing a workforce that is more representative of the county. He said: “Even as early as Tuesday, when Look North and Calendar invited us to lay ourselves bare, there are so many challenges. I am disappointed with how the organisation still works internally – that needs to be addressed quickly, but it is something we are on with.

“I would ask all of you to give me, the new board and the staff time to make the company something that is representative of the whole of Yorkshire. There are lots of structural changes we need to make internally before we can start looking at being a tourism agency again.”

Mr Mason also spoke of the need to recruit people from other parts of the region, as much of the organisation’s staff are from either York or Leeds.

He later added: “The current organisation is not representative of Yorkshire. That doesn’t mean we will forcibly change it overnight, because we can’t, but at the same time, it hasn’t been fit for purpose and therefore it will be a legacy that will take some time to turn round.

“This is a juggernaut slowing down, but it is still going at some pace.”

Former leader of Wakefield Council Peter Box is the interim chair of the Welcome to Yorkshire board – he suggested introducing more transparency to WtY’s decision-making processes.

He added: “When I became chair in October, it became clear that there wasn’t effective performance management. We will be changing – we spoke of the need for strict financial controls.

“We need to engage much better with the public. I intend to ask the board that meetings should be web-casted or in public.

“People can see for themselves then that we are accountable.”

At a meeting in October 2019, the business rates panel agreed to make £1m of public funding available to Welcome to Yorkshire, after it was suggested the organisation was “reliant” on receiving the money.

Councillors agreed to make the funding available in three parts – for October 2019, December 2019 and February 2020 – provided the organisation could prove it was following the committee’s recommendations.

These included recruitment of a brand new board with a public sector appointee as chair, and for a new chief executive to be appointed as soon as possible.

The board agreed to the recommendations of a report to release the final two thirds of a £1m payment from the business rates pool to WtY, as well as a commitment for the organisation to submit regular reports to the committee.