COUNCILLORS won't be able to look into the failures that led to thousands of pounds of public money being lost on unpopular Tour de France entertainments until after the next election and the Tour of Yorkshire in May.

A committee decided on Tuesday not to start a formal scrutiny of the Tour de France in York - which went tens of thousands of pounds over budget.

The council is set to wind up for the election in a matter of months, and with the committee already battling to finish three important investigations, councillors decided there was no time to look at the Tour de France as well.

But the committee's chairman, Cllr Dave Taylor, said he is disappointed his colleagues would not even agree to making a start on the work, and opened themselves up to accusations of "brushing the issue under the carpet".

He said he fears the delay could make it easier for the new scrutiny committee to ignore the issue altogether, if the political make-up is different.

He added: "I’m not best pleased that this will be delayed, and therefore cannot inform plans for the Tour de Yorkshire."

Lib Dem Cllr Ian Cuthbertson was behind the calls for a review in the first place, which he wanted to include the loss-making "Grand Departy" concert at Huntington Stadium.

He said: "Besides a loss to taxpayers of £187,000 from the concert, there are serious questions about public safety at the event.

“I called for an immediate review so that we could establish what had gone wrong and then be sure that lessons would be learned before May’s Tour de Yorkshire event. Putting back the scrutiny review until after the local elections and the Tour de Yorkshire must now raise further concerns not only about safety and event planning but also about accountability for the Grand Departy financial debacle”.

But Labour member Ruth Potter - who will stand down at the next election - said those councillors likely to be on the committee after May simply did not have enough time to start the review properly.

She said: "Obviously this is important, but we can't do it as a quick fix."

She added that it would be very difficult for a new committee to drop the investigation now the subject had been accepted for scrutiny and recorded in the minutes.