The leader of the council's opposition Labour Group, Coun. David Scott has said information on the cost of renting back the council's former offices after 2010 is being kept from councillors. His claim comes after what he describes as ‘almost 2 months waiting' for information he says has not been forthcoming.

And he says he now has little choice but to issue a Freedom of Information request. He explained:

"I have made a very straightforward request of officers, which I made at the Shadow Executive meeting on 20th August and which has gone nowhere. As an elected member I am entitled to find out this detail, and I regard it as critically important to determining how things will progress with a new HQ project. There is no reasonable explanation for this".

"How much longer must we wait to get this information? There is either a lamentable lack of information sharing within the council, or councillors are deliberately being kept in the dark. It throws into question the issue of open and transparent accountability."

"Every time I have asked for this information I have been given excuse after excuse. Today I have been told that the person who is responsible for providing these figures is away until Monday. I can only assume that the Lib Dem administration is trying to keep these details secret".

"I fear that the Executive will seek to put these figures on private papers that mean the residents of York will not be able to know about them. Residents deserve to know just how much of their money is going to be wasted renting back properties, many of which the council used to own."