Council admits Ricoh 'not sustainable' without Coventry City

Coventry City Council has publicly admitted for the first time that the Ricoh Arena was not sustainable without Coventry City FC.



Labour council leader Ann Lucas made the admission to the Telegraph after we reported that the latest filed accounts of Ricoh Arena operating company ACL showed the firm lost almost £400,000.

The company was jointly owned by the council and the Alan Higgs Edward Higgs Charity during the period covered in the latest accounts – up to May 2014.

They also cover a time when the Sky Blues failed to fulfil their obligation to pay £1.3million annual rent and left to play home matches in Northampton.

Both the council and the Higgs Charity repeatedly insisted that ACL was a profitable company without the football club's rent – but, following the release of the latest accounts, those claims no longer stand up to scrutiny.

Coun Lucas said: “We said that ACL was profitable without the football club, the accounts show different. I fully accept that."

In other words, she was lying through her teeth.

We all knew it was unsustainable! - Stupid woman!

"Stupid" or downright dishonest?

"Stupid" or downright dishonest?

Stupid because she thought we couldn't see the simple facts, dishonest because she told blatant lies.

The woman ought now stand down, as she has lost what little remaining credibility that she had.

More false Coventry council claims exposed over Ricoh Wasps deal



PRESSURE is mounting on Coventry City Council and its leader Ann Lucas as she claimed she had believed information from senior officers when misleading the public with false claims about the Ricoh Arena amid its sale to London rugby club Wasps.

The Observer can also exclusively reveal evidence to show Coun Lucas last week made further false claims, wrongly alleging the Sky Blues had only been interested in buying back the stadium, built by and for the football club, on a FREEHOLD basis.

The evidence, revealed for the first time, comes from a letter written by Joy Seppala, head of Sky Blues' parent company Sisu, to Coun Lucas in November 2013, days after they met to discuss a possible stadium deal.

Critics have today called for an inquiry, and said the revelations cast major doubts over the entire Wasps deal and use of taxpayers' money.

Read more: http://www.coventryobserver.co.uk/2015/ ... 25024.html

'Hell freezes over' before council sells Ricoh to Sky Blues



THIS Coventry City Council document we reveal today raises further questions over whether council leader Ann Lucas misled the public over the sale of the Ricoh Arena company to rugby club Wasps.

The handwritten notes from a meeting of leading Labour councillors, on the document dated August 13, 2012, appear to show one - under the name "Anne" - was so hostile to Coventry City FC's owners Sisu they suggested a deal should only be done "when hell freezes over".

Asked about claims on the Coventry Observer website last week that she had misled the public over the council's Ricoh deal with Wasps last October, Coun Lucas told BBC Coventry and Warwickshire's Shane O'Connor the council had "always hoped it would be the Sky Blues" buying into the Ricoh Arena and "her door was always open" to them.

The document was submitted as evidence to the High Court last year by Coventry City Football Club's parent company Sisu in a judicial review into Sisu's claims the council's £14million taxpayer loan to Arena Coventry Limited (ACL) in January, 2013 had been unlawful.

It appears to contain handwritten notes about what was stated at the meeting by leading Labour councillors. One of the notes clearly states: "Anne - deal with Sisu when hell freezes over."

Ann Lucas was a cabinet member at the time, before she became council leader in a leadership coup in May, 2013.

Read more: http://www.coventryobserver.co.uk/2015/ ... 25086.html

Whilst I think SISU behaved very wrongly by withholding rent etc. anything that shortens Lucas's tenure at CCC is (IMHO) to be welcomed.

Should it be found that she did mislead the public, she must then face due process for her duplicity.

Coventry MP calls on council to clarify Ricoh Arena decisions



Coventry MP and former Coventry City Council leader Jim Cunningham has called on the authority to “clarify” how it came to decisions about the Ricoh Arena.

The Coventry South MP has become the first high-profile figure to add his voice to pockets of criticism which have emerged since the Telegraph revealed council assurances about the Ricoh Arena’s business performance did not stand up to scrutiny.

We recently reported Ricoh Arena operating company ACL had made a £400,000 loss during the time Coventry City FC withdrew £1.3million annual rent and left to play “home” matches in Northampton.

Council leader Ann Lucas then told the Telegraph her assurances about the stadium’s profitability during that period turned out to be incorrect, admitting ACL had not been able to “wash its face”.

Coventry’s other Labour MPs, Geoffrey Robinson and Bob Ainsworth, this week called for all parties to “move on” - but Mr Cunningham said questions should be answered if the public demands it.

He said: “The football club does indeed need to try to make the best of the situation and focus on the future.

“I want to see the football club continue to play at the Ricoh long into the future and think that all parties need to be pragmatic in working in the best interests of the club.

“However, some members of the public are raising questions about how the council came to the decisions they did and are calling for clarification. This, to me, is a separate issue to the future of the football club.

“I believe that if the public raises concerns about council actions, then it is important that these concerns are addressed.

“I therefore think that the council should clarify the situation and explain any misunderstanding that has arisen.”

Details behind the council’s decision to sell its 50 per cent share of ACL in October, and later agree full sale of the company to Wasps, were shrouded in secrecy as the authority cited “commercial confidentiality”.

Some believe the nature of ACL’s business performance could have been crucial in the council decision and, therefore, it is important to establish what councillors were told.

It is only right that the council has to explain itself to those that fund it... And not only about the Ricoh Arena!

Coventry council accused of 'absurd' Ricoh secrecy and new misleading Ricoh claims

COVENTRY City Council has been accused of 'absurd' new levels of secrecy and more misleading claims over its Ricoh Arena deal with Wasps after an angry speech by leader Ann Lucas.

She told a broadcast council meeting last week the loan for the now Wasps-owned Arena Coventry Limited had come from council "borrowing", suggesting it was a "lie" to claim otherwise.

Yet, in a contradictory statement, the council in mid-January this year re-iterated in answers to the Coventry Observer we published that the £14.4m taxpayer loan had NOT come from borrowing.

In January 2013, when the loan was privately agreed, council executives Martin Reeves and Chris West said the money had come from the council's "cash balances" - money waiting to be spent on capital projects.

In response to Coventry Observer questions this week seeking clarity, a council statement read only: “Legal proceedings are still ongoing and so we are unable to comment further about any aspects or details of this issue.”

The council's code of conduct commits councillors to be "open" and "transparent" with the public.

Last week, an open letter to government communities secretary Eric Pickles and Coun Lucas calling for an independent inquiry into the Wasps deal argued the council had got the balance wrong between 'openness' and 'commercial and legal confidentiality', amid legal disputes with the club's owners Sisu.

The open letter, published on the Coventry Observer website, was signed by 25 prominent Coventry City Football Club fans and professional people - including lawyers, academics and business people.

Among them was Peter Ward, a businessman and chairman of the Coventry City Supporters' Consultative Group, who said of this week's developments: "The council's lack of transparency has reached absurd new levels.

"It strikes me the council are hiding behind the legal proceedings in an attempt to get their story straight.

"Ms Lucas and the council appear very inconsistent on this issue."

Politics professor Andrew Russell, another signatory to the open letter, said: "Transparency is the life blood of democracy - particularly if trust between elected officials and the people who put them there is to be maintained at the local level.

"I find it troubling that the council are now declining to provide information on matters that they have previously provided briefings for.

"It's unfortunate that when asking for an explanation for apparent contradictions in previous statements about 'borrowing' from the ACL loan, they are citing 'legal proceedings' as justification for not providing one when a simple explanation should be easy to provide."

Coun Lucas's broadside last week, as ruling Labour councillors voted through a £15million cuts budget, was a response to Socialist ex-councillor and ex-MP Dave Nellist.

He had pointed to the Ricoh loan in arguing the council had the ability to use "reserves" of cash to stave off cuts to council services this year.

The council executives in January, 2013, had said cash balances used for the loan would eventually be replenished by borrowing.

In January this year, they confirmed that had still not happened, in stating: "The council loan to ACL was capital expenditure by the council, that will ultimately be funded by borrowing.

"The council has not yet needed to borrow to fund the loan because of its overall cash position."

A private report by council finance officer Barry Hastie on January 15, 2013 to councillors, recommending they approve the loan, stated cash balances would be used for the loan in the "initial years" before the council used its prudential borrowing powers.

The open letter calls for an inquiry with wide terms of reference, including over inaccurate public claims surrounding the deal last October to sell loss-making ACL to loss-making London Wasps Holdings Limited; why the same terms including a massive 250-year lease were not offered to the loss-making football club on which the Ricoh financially depended; and tactics deployed in the council/ACL's communications strategy, including the hiring of a London PR firm.

Newly published London Wasps Holdings Limited accounts for 2013/4, prior to the Ricoh Arena move, reveal £4million operating losses (up from £3.1million the previous year), despite a one-off "negative goodwill" company transaction of £10.6million.

The accounts record total liabilities owed by London Wasps Holdings Limited of £22million.

This is in addition to the £13.4million that ACL, 100 per cent owned by London Wasps Holdings Limited, owes to Coventry City Council under the taxpayer loan.

Council sources say it is due to be paid back within 20 years plus interest, currently amounting to around £1.3million a year in total.

As we have reported, London Wasps Holdings Limited's immediate parent company is Moonstone Holdings Limited and the ultimate parent company is MGI Fiduciary Services Limited, based in offshore Malta and controlled by Wasps owner Derek Richardson.