A LEADING council officer has denied claims a loss-making music concert was unsafe.

July's Grand Departy event at Huntington Stadium lost £187,000 and raised serious safety concerns.

Now, the gravity of the issues, along with other failings of the Tour de France celebrations will be reviewed by City of York Council's Cabinet and the Learning and Culture Overview and Scrutiny Committee, following calls for an inquiry by Cllr Ian Cuthbertson.

Despite the Event Safety Advisory Group outlining failures including locked fire exits, tents blocking emergency exits and no licence to allow people to use the covered seating areas, Sally Burns, director of Communities and Neighbourhoods at the authority, told a meeting of the committee it was safe.

She said: "I can categorically sit here and say to you it was not an unsafe event.

"If there was anything dangerous the event would have been stopped.

"As events go on things happen and if things aren't in the right position, but as safety officers we work to keep things safe and we think it was."

The committee agreed to scrutinise the planning, promotion and delivery of events, health and safety aspects of the Grand Departy, the loss making camp sites and problems with a big screen in Rowntree Park.

Cllr Cuthbertson urged the meeting to review mistakes incase the Tour de Yorkshire event comes to the city in May 2015.

He said: "It's important to understand why the event in July of this year went wrong and make sure we take the maximum precautions we can."