NOW that Labour has – at least until the Westfield byelection – lost its overall majority on the city council, pushing through decisions in York will be much tougher.

So it is no surprise that Tim Atkins, the council’s community stadium project manager, has pulled out all the stops to persuade a crucial council committee to support the stadium proposals.

In particular, Mr Atkins warns of dire consequences should the council not approve an extra £4million contribution from its capital budget to the stadium project.

The £4million would act as the ‘anchor’ to secure an extra £12.5million of commercial investment from GLL that would pay for 2,000 extra seats in the stadium, plus the new 25 metre pool, a training pool, a fun pool, a gym, a children’s indoor play area, and a competition-standard sports hall, Mr Atkins says. Failure to approve it would have a “fundamental negative impact on the viability of the scheme” – and could even lead to it being cancelled.

We think it is absolutely right that Liberal Democrats should have called in the community stadium proposals for further examination at today’s corporate scrutiny management committee.

There are real questions about why we didn’t learn about this extra £4million council requirement until so recently – as well as about the jobs of staff at Waterworld and the impact of the new pool on Yearsley pool.

Yet for the stadium project to be stalled or cancelled at this late stage would be a disaster.

The project has not run smoothly. Serious questions must be asked, and lessons learned.

But It is vital that we come out of this process with a workable, viable scheme that will see the stadium delivered on time.