THE start of building work on the Community Stadium means some of the financial risk to the council has passed, York's finance chief has said, but there are growing fears over the state of health budgets.
Ian Floyd, finance director at City of York Council, warned last year that ongoing delays to the stadium project put council budgets at risk because if the project was scrapped, the millions already spent would have to be found from day to day budgets.
This year, now that building work has finally started, that risk has abated a little, but York NHS's severe problems pose more worries.
Mr Floyd said the "huge" financial crisis in York health services was a major concern.
He added: "If we were in that position it would be on the front page most days of the week."
"We cannot underplay the impact their situation could have in terms of our residents and some of our costs.
"Our budget makes proper provision for that. We cannot issue blank cheques or bail out the CCG and NHS system, but we do have to make proper provision."