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05
Aug
Exclusive: Council defends £42,500 cost of managers’ meetings in Harrogate
North Yorkshire Council has spent £42,518 hiring rooms for senior managers’ meetings in Harrogate — despite owning one of the premier events venues in the north of England just two-and-a-half miles away.
The council pays Pavilions of Harrogate up to £7,000 a day to host quarterly seminars and a ‘culture conference’ for bosses.
It does so even though it owns nearby Harrogate Convention Centre, which it describes as ‘delivering world-class facilities for events, conferences, exhibitions and entertainment in a contemporary space’.
The Stray Ferret investigated after a source told us they were concerned taxpayers’ money was being wasted.
We sent a freedom of information request asking the council for a breakdown of how much it has spent on room hire since it was created in April 2023.
It hires the Calder and Derwent rooms at Pavilions of Harrogate, which is situated alongside the Great Yorkshire Showground on Wetherby Road.
They are among 13 ‘elegant and versatile’ rooms advertised for hire by Yorkshire Agricultural Society, the farming charity that owns the site.
Here is what each event cost:
A table showing the cost of room hire for senior managers' meetings.
Harrogate Convention Centre is a 10-minute drive from Pavilions of Harrogate.
Asked why it did not use its own venue, the Conservative-run council said in its freedom of information response:
The primary reason Harrogate Convention Centre is not used for large events is limited availability, despite being our preferred venue and being approached well in advance whenever possible.
Whilst use of Harrogate Convention Centre may involve an internal recharge within the council, there remains a genuine financial cost, as hiring the venue for council purposes prevents it from being let to external customers.
This represents income foregone to the council. In addition, the convention centre's venue hire charges are generally higher than those of the Pavilions.
Harrogate Convention Centre.
The council added its day rate at Pavilions of Harrogate included “everything from room hire, screens, projectors, AV equipment, refreshments, lunch etc”.
Our source said the branded the council's response "frankly pathetic”.
They added it also raised questions over why the convention centre wasn’t competitively priced against rival venues.
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