THE long-awaited York Community Stadium has taken a major step forward after key contracts were signed with future tenants for the complex.

Senior City of York councillors have been told that contracts have now been signed with both charity York Against Cancer and with the NHS.

Project bosses have previously warned that the city council could be left picking up an extra bill for nearly £250,000 a year if the NHS did not sign on the dotted line.

But despite the positive contract news, councillors were also asked to agree to risk another £1.4 million, because restaurant tenants have not yet signed up.

The updates came at a meeting of the city council executive on Thursday night.

Ian Floyd, the council’s finance director, said that with the NHS and York Against Cancer deals “everything that is fully in the control of the council has been signed".

The risk has appeared in the commercial development that occupies the East Stand, which an investment fund has agreed to buy on a long lease from the council for £3.8 million.

The stand will be home to three restaurant units, but the investors want two to have tenancies agreed before they take it on. As none have currently been let, the council has had to agree a sliding scale of payments, meaning the authority will get £3.1 million if one restaurant is let out, and £2.4 million if none have tenants - risking £1.4 million out of the £10.7 million commercial income the council is budgeting for.

Progress is being made on letting the units, said Mr Floyd, but delaying the project would be a bigger risk with the cost increases that could bring.

Agreeing to the deal, councillors said risk had always been a part of the project.

Labour group leader Cllr Janet Looker said: “I suspect some of the people interested in investing want to know it’s going to happen. It’s been in progress so long I suspect they want to see a spade in the ground to give them some assurance.”

Cllr Ann Reid, the interim executive member for leisure, added: “I am really pleased to see that the stadium project is moving on, and construction work will be starting shortly."

It is important people do not forget the ambitious project includes health and community facilities, as well as the stadium, she added.

Elsewhere in the complex a deal has already been signed with a cinema operator, and one restaurant deal is being finalised for a unit in the Southern Block.

According to the most recent timeline set out by the council, construction site mobilisation should now start in November.

Building works will start in earnest in December, and the stadium should be finished between February and April 2019, and facilities including the stadium ready to go by June 2019.