The Isle of Wight Council has been left £350,000 out of pocket after the last leg of the elite Tour of Britain cycling event was cancelled – and the public, taxpayer-funded purse may not see a penny of that figure back.
The race was supposed to take place on 11th September last year but was cancelled 2 days before, following the death of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II.
The Island agreed to host the final leg of the Tour of Britain in 2020, with the intention to hold it in 2021. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the race was pushed back 12 months.
To host the event, the Isle of Wight Council had to pay £250,000 to the organisers SweetSpot.
The authority also incurred further costs, however, that were not covered by the organisers — including road closure orders, marketing and public relations. Some fees were able to be recouped but due to the last-minute cancellation, the council still had to pay £100,000.
Some sponsorship agreements to cover costs had been agreed but they fell away when the event did not take place.
By hosting the Tour of Britain, it was thought the Island would make around £4million by attracting more people. Some monetary benefits had been identified, the council said, even though the event was cancelled.
In the contract between the Isle of Wight Council and SweetSpot, in the case of an extraordinary event beyond the control of either party — known as ‘Force Majeure’ — the council would be entitled to a refund of the host venue fees after real costs had been deducted.
The authority says the company was suitably insured to allow for this to happen. However, the council said it was ‘made clear’ by SweetSpot from the outset ‘it would not be in a position to refund any of the money’.
Discussions have continued and the authority says it has been agreed a sum would be provided against a future cycling event on the Island.
SweetSpot has been contacted to ask why the money cannot be returned.
The Isle of Wight Council’s corporate scrutiny committee will be considering the matter further at its meeting this Tuesday (10th January).
“The authority says the company was suitably insured to allow for this to happen. However, the council said it was ‘made clear’ by SweetSpot from the outset ‘it would not be in a position to refund any of the money’.”
Why is this the case, as if SweetSpot were “suitably insured” it would be for SweetSpot’s insurers to pay out the money to them. Is this another case of the IW Council’s inability to handle legal cases where money is legally due to them – or in this case – the Island’s taxpayers who expect the Council to be acting on their behalf.
We can only imagine what goes on beyond our knowledge.
The non disclosure of the settlement for the floating bridge, despite it being our, public money proves that such people can now, never again, IF they ever were, be trusted with any financial deals by council tax payers.
But, it won’t worry them, they just put up the amount and get richer as more homes are built here all paying c.tax, to engorge the pot that they, at will, can dip into for salaries, pensions, perks, and bloated expenses.
And there is NOTHING we can do about it apart from moan on here and they know it.
ANOTHER FINE MESS YOU GOT ME INTO STANLY
Oh, it’s easy to understand. A contract was drawn up, but SweetSpot made it quite clear that if push came to shove they would break the contract and IWC wouldn’t get a penny. And IWC said, “Yep, that’s fine !” Two years and about five months to the next election, folks.
Good job they made over £600,000 on parking tickets last year then
THIS SHOULD NOT READ HOW MUCH THE COUNCIL HAS LOST DUE TO THIS
IT SHOULD READ HOW MUCH COUNCIL TAX PAYERS HAVE LOST
Roe another blunder by this Council it goes on and on
More like council bosses loose out on a nice big bonus
The council are not out of pocket, as usual it is us, the taxpayers, who are out of pocket. This useless council now want to waste even more of our money to host this boring event in the future. As for the comment that the event would have brought 4 million pounds to the island, total rubbish. It wouldn’t bring tuppence halfpenny over here. When will people on this island ever stand up against the council and get rid of them?
Paul organise a rebellion & we will back you up, these idiots are waisting our Money and will just increase council tax to cover up there stupidity.
And where is our Council Leaders writen statement on the mater, bet she is in hiding again.
Bart, if I thought enough people would stand up to them I would seriously consider trying to organise something, however time and time again everyone here just moans on these comments pages but won’t take direct action. 100 people demonstrating will just be ignored. 50,000 people marching on the council screaming for heads to roll just might get their attention. Unfortunately it will never happen so the council will continue to lie, continue to cheat us, continue to be corrupt and continue to take us all for the suckers that we are.
Stop moaning
Hoistered by you’re own pretard
Paul we also need transparancy on this Floating wight elephant compensation and not a cover up , after all its our money ,i will also stand by you
Paul i will wait to see if this Council wil renew Island Roads contract ?
Inconvenienced when they are on the road and when they are not!
Sweet spot cannot refund the money, as their accounts to end december 2021 showed that current liabilities were £890,000 and liabilities due in more than a year were £2.2 million – that meant total debts and payables of just over £3 million – once these are accounted for, they had £43,000 in cash left.
lack of due diligence by the council it would seem
Wait what!? They paid to have it come here? Should be the other way around. I would have told them to go piss off.
Incompetent Amateur’s …. !! IWC Back to Contract Management School …
Just another loss this administration have made. Shouldn’t be trusted to run a tuc shop..
Can Bob Seeley get this council of secrets audited?
Where was the £4 million coming from? there can’t have been that many followers coming to the Island for this event that were going to spend that amount of money, I presume a lot of the expenses incurred were down to road closures etc.
Apart from the people actually being involved and following this it was going to create nothing but chaos for the general public and delivery firms etc trying to go about their daily business.
On your bikes IWC and The Chief Exec .. you are all fired !!
If only we could … !!
Can the IW Council explain to the public how it will make money for the council tax payer by holding this event. I’m mystified?
The Isle of Wight Council’s corporate scrutiny committee will be considering the matter further at its meeting this Tuesday (10th January).
What are the odds that the scrutiny committee will consider the matter behind closed doors and will never publish the true findings or true costs (just like the floating bridge)
This bunch of incompetents need to be reminded they work for us and it is our money they are so happy to waste.
Due diligence was obviously woefully lacking and heads should roll and they should roll publicly.
Good, council parasites..
If i want to hold an event on the island i have to pay for road closures etc and they would certainly not pay me to hold the event so why did they pay this lot, were the island taxpayers consulted as to whether or not they wanted to pay for the event, why does the council have to pay itself for road closures which never happened.