Council sets aside £4m to cover expected short-term losses following the collapse of Cineworld deal at Northern Gateway Leisure Park

£4 million of taxpayers’ money has been set aside in a new Council reserve entitled “Turnstone” following the collapse and financial restructuring of the Cineworld Group, which pulled out of Northern Gateway Leisure Park Project.

Leader of the Conservative Opposition on the Council, Councillor Paul Dundas (Tiptree Ward) said: "The financial dangers around this project were evident and obvious. Whenever there was an opportunity, we asked questions publicly about the status of Cineworld as the anchor tenant in the Northern Gateway Leisure scheme.

But the Leaders of the Council have constantly stonewalled, and described Cineworld as “robust, well-financed and independent of Cineworld’s USA operations”. This turns out to be anything but the truth.

In fact, during the tenure of the current Lib-Dem Leader, Cineworld was in Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the USA. Its share price dropped from 26p per share, to 0.4p per share. Yet he did nothing to mitigate the loss until the High Court intervention on 28th August this year.

The fact that the council has been forced to set aside a whopping £4 million to cover potential short-term losses on this Northern Gateway project shows the magnitude of the problem.

This £4m of Colchester council tax payers' money will not be available to spend on front-line services including waste collection, parks, grass cutting and even Castle Park toilets because of the Council's unwise involvement in a speculative commercial cinema venture owned by hedge-funds in the Cayman Islands.”

The mess created by the Lib-Dems is going to be a very costly exercise for the council and for Colchester residents.”

Conservatives pledge to bring sound financial management to this shambles of a Council.

2024-10-11

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