A Labour councillor has officially called for a debate on the “lessons learnt” report on the loan to the i360 brokered by Brighton and Hove City Council.
Councillor Liz Loughran made a formal request for the report be included on the agenda for the next meeting when the council’s Audit, Standards and General Purposes Committee met yesterday (Tuesday 21 April).
The independent report by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) was not presented to the meeting despite a previous commitment from the council that it would be.
Councillor Lochran said that the report covered key areas overseen by the Audit, Standards and General Purposes Committee such as governance, contract management, forecasting and risk management.
The lack of a public airing prompted pointed political comments from the Labour deputy leader of the council, Jacob Taylor, who accused the committee chair, Green councillor Pete West, of “sulking” about the content.
After Councillor Loughran made her request, Councillor West said that the report was “not complete”.
One of Councillor West’s concerns was that the report was written without contacting those involved in the original decision to broker a £36 million loan from the Public Works Loan Board to i360 developer Marks Barfield.
In response to Councillor Loughran, he said: “I have a slight problem with this because I don’t believe that report is completed yet. In my view, it is not yet complete.”
After discussions with the council’s legal boss Elizabeth Culbert, Councillor West said that he would “get back” to Councillor Loughran when the agenda was put together for the next meeting, due on Tuesday 23 June.
The CIPFA report, which cost £5,000 to produce, said that the council was sold “over-ambitious” projections of visitor numbers, revenues and profits.
The council kept the business case secret from the public when it decided to approve the £36 million loan to Marks Barfield, citing commercial confidentiality.
When the terms of the loan were agreed in 2014, the minority Green administration voted through the proposals with support from some but not all of the opposition Conservative group.
But the Labour group – who were the smallest party at the time – voted against the loan.
The council is now repaying the outstanding balance of the £36 million Public Works Loan Board loan at about £2.2 million a year over the next 15 years until 2041.
The i360 ceased trading in December 2024 when the company that owned the seafront tower filed for administration, leaving more than 100 people jobless just before Christmas.
The total debt had gone up to £51 million, including interest, when the council wrote off the amount owing early last year. This enabled the administrators of the business to sell the i360.
Leisure operator Nightcap bought the i360 for £150,000 from the administrators at Interpath Limited in February last year.
In May last year, Nightcap said that it would honour the condition attached to the i360’s planning permission that 1 per cent of ticket sales paid to the council.
And when will the police get involved to find out where over £45 million went?
At this time the citizens of this city is left with the bill and NO benefits or change of getting the cash back…
Well, if the report found fraud, it would have been referred to the police already.
I had forgotten Liz Loughran was a sitting councillor, which is awkward, but then so is missing the last three full council meetings. There may be good reasons, such as health, family, and life, and those should be respected. But councillors are elected to show up, not just to reappear when there is a point to be made. If you cannot do the job, then quit and let someone else do it. Public office is not a part-time hobby with occasional guest appearances.
Perhaps the next agenda item could be the small question of elected members attending the council they were elected to sit on. Radical, no doubt. But it might help. At present, the arrangement has the air of someone wanting the title without the tiresome obligation of the work.
It was heath I believe.
I agree. Kemptown in particular comes to mind with those two fraudsters last seen at a Conservative party with Murdock. Though it does pay less than a part-time job, it’s something people have to have a second source of income.
They used to have to resign if they missed three meetings on which they were supposed to sit.
Six months now, and in the case of the Kemptown Mum and Daughter duo, they turned up at the six month mark, stayed the legally required minimum amount of time, then went off again.