Hopes of the Isle of Wight Council recouping costs associated with the cancellation of 2022’s Tour of Britain stage have somewhat faded as Sweetspot, the former organiser of the major cycling event, has entered voluntary liquidation. The Isle of Wight Council has been left £350,000 out of pocket after the last leg of the 2022 Tour of Britain was cancelled following the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. It came as a massive blow for the Island, especially as the event was originally due to be held in 2021 but had been pushed back due to COVID. To host the sporting event, the local authority paid organisers a total of £250,000. Additional costs were incurred for things such as road closure orders, marketing and public relations. Due to the last-minute cancellation, the Council found itself £100,000 out of pocket on top of the £250,000 paid to Sweetspot. In the contract between the Isle of Wight Council and organisers, the Council would be entitled to a refund in the event of a Force Majure, after real costs had been deducted. But, as reported by Island Echo in January last year, the Council was told by Sweetspot that ‘it would not be in a position to refund any of the money’. Since then it has been confirmed that Sweetspot did not have insurance in place to cover a cancellation forced by the death of a senior member of the Royal Family, as such insurance was ‘prohibitively expensive’ and ‘commercially unviable’. 
“As this is now potentially a legal matter it would not be appropriate to comment further at this time.”
Last year Sweetspot ran the Tour of Britain as a scaled-back event, with fewer competitors and no headline sponsor. Then, at the end of last year, British Cycling terminated Sweetspot’s rights to organise the Tour over a financial dispute. It’s claimed that Sweetspot owes a race licence fee of around £700,000. The company has since filed for voluntary liquidation with KRE Corporate Recovery appointed to deal with creditors.
Did the IW Council not have insurance?
It is called Council tax.
When they Fcuk up like they usually do, they just increase our Council tax to
pay for their Fcuk ups!
“did not have insurance in place to cover a cancellation forced by the death of a senior member of the Royal Family,.. as I said at time,it was used only as an excuse, no need to cancel just because Queen died, she would not of wanted people to loose money and go without. Many other things continued and to be honest most of population weren’t bothered,she sadly had good year’s and folk die of old age,it wasn’t like she was assassinated…
Quite right. I was appalled at the butt heads who cancelled events because the Queen died – what a pathetic little country we’ve become and an absolute laughing stock. Especially when the Queen always carried on in the face of adversity.
Not a problem at all.
Just write that off against the additional £3million in central Government funding – on top of the £1million uplift already announced – in recognition of the Island’s unique circumstances that Bob Seely obtained for the council
I’m not too sure what is the islands unique circumstances are as it is the same as 99% of local councils who waste and squander the money the government give them.
Surely heads should roll that signed off this ridiculous event as “due diligence” was sorely lacking.
Add it to the Floating bridge bill
More of our money given away, when will the idiots at the Council
take responsibility.
Yet to mention the clapped out Chain Ferry
Don’t worry our Council tax increase will pay for their Fcuk Ups!
Blind man on a galloping horse could have seen that one coming
Why did the isle of wight council no take out their own insurance to cover our tax payers money
Well done council, let’s hope this will never happen again. The one thing this lot do and do very well is waste our money.
Since when has the council suing a company ever resulted in anything other than more money being wasted in legal fees and the outcome shrouded in secrecy, vis a vis the floating money pit at Cowes/East Cowes. It is time we were allowed to veto such extravagant expenditure in the first place. What makes the few of them able to spend OUR money, or in most cases, waste it.
Here we go this will be another hush up, like the floating bridge…..
Don’t dare ever think of doing this again…. ….
Totally pd off re wasting our money……
Not one thought re weather!!!!!
Total numptys…..
The Council is run by p*ss heads who don”t know what the Fcuk they are doing.
So not only have this useless council squandered a quarter of a million pounds on a stupid, unwanted event, they now want to squander even more on a totally pointless court case as the company concerned have gone bust. Get rid of our moronic council.
Yet another dodgy company and it’s director’s that will get away with robbery…
Why didn’t the person why organised the bike stage for the island with this company check before hand if the company had insurance, its not rocket science. And why waste our money taking them to court when they’ve gone bankrupt you numpties YOU ALL NEED SACKING!!
…. Should have checked there was insurance against the Queen dying at the exact same time? Also for the event to be hit by a flaming meteor, perhaps?
At least we can take some small measure of solace that the Council managed to swerve that other fiasco waiting to happen – The Diamond Races.
Think up some hairbrained scheme, approach the idiots at County Hall, walk out with a full swag bag of our money. While on the plane to the Caribbean put the hairbrained company into receivership, count the money while sunbathing. Job done.
Sure they can take it from the £3m they will be getting off centre government. Run the council like a business and simply write it off like most firms do on the island.
The leader of the once and now defunct Northampton Borough Council gave a businessman £10 million of taxpayers money to build a new football stand. There is no football stand. No one can find where the money went. Oh, and the taxpayer had to pay £3.5million to investigate where the money went.
Sadly, it’s everywhere. You would think Government leaders would have taken out insurance or contractual requirements should it fail. Nope!
Call me a cynic, but you begin to wonder who has been doing the scratching?
You’re not a cynic at all. Never mind the question of insurance, why give anyone money up front! Oh yes, it isn’t their money is it, it is ours, our hard earned council tax, wasted. If they for once put their brain into gear and treated it as a precious resource I might think the IWC were working for us.
As low as my opinion of the IW Council is, I don’t think that it’s fair to blame them for this loss.
I prefer a quiet IW, without road closures and detours but it’s economy thrives on recreational and sport activities, this would have been a wonderful boost and the IW Council would have been foolish not to get involved.
Of course it needed to be cancelled as a mark of respect to her late Majesty and yes there should have been insurance in place but had that not happened those commentators with 20/20 hindsight would doubtless have been complaining if the IW Council had turned down the final stage of the race.
Unfortunate for all concerned but, in this particular instance, we should just accept it as bad luck.
Unlikely to get compensation from a bankrupt company. Bit like secrecy over the floating farce compensation! Council should concentrate on bins and roads etc. Rather than throw money away so recklessly.