"Cash-strapped" city council in secret talks to buy Coombe Abbey Hotel

Council lost out on £160k from Coombe car park over ticket machine wrangle



Coventry council has lost out on £160,000 income from Coombe Country Park – because a legal dispute to replace a vandalised car parking machine took six months to resolve.

Some 400,000 visitors are expected at the popular grounds each year with car parking charges ranging from £2 for up to an hour to the highest price of £30 for coaches.

As a result the car park was budgeted to bring in £530,000 income this financial year, which would help offset the park’s £600,000 running costs.

Councillors were told last week (March 25) car parking fees at the venue had only brought in £370,000 for the financial year, which ended on Saturday.

That doesn't account for any money raised from parking in the final days of the financial year however at last count is a staggering £160,000 shortfall on the projected income.

Such a huge loss has been put down to the council’s car parking machine being vandalised last summer, which left it unusable.

While the machine was down, the council introduced a ‘temporary’ £3 flat fee to be paid voluntarily at the cafe.

But this went on for half a year due to a legal dispute between the council and the supplier over the machine’s security – a wrangle Conservative councillor Tim Sawdon has criticised.

He said: “I find it difficult to accept that it’s taken over six months to get it sorted when Labour councillors continue to complain about the lack of cash.

“(The loss) is not an insignificant sum and comes hot on the heels of the massive loss on the Godiva Festival.”

The original pay and display machines were replaced in 2016 with the current ANPR system.

But lengthy negotiations to sort the security issue are expected to be finalised this week, resulting in the current system being replaced and upgraded.

If arseholes could fly, our council chamber would qualify as an airport.

Council-owned hotel to receive £1m bailout



Council Leader George Duggins said the loan to Coombe Abbey Hotel would “ensure the future” of the council-owned hotel while the hospitality sector struggles with losses from the pandemic.

The move was approved by council chief executive Martin Reeves through emergency powers meaning the decision was not publicly debated by councillors.

It has sparked criticism that the decision was pushed through without scrutiny and has been branded a "taxpayer bailout" by the Conservative opposition group.

The council purchased the hotel for a reported £11m in 2017 and handed it previous help such as a £1.95m loan last year to facilitate a GoApe assault course.

If it can't stand on its own two feet, it's no good! Cut our losses now!

Coventry council still waiting for £800k Coombe Abbey hotel return



A hotel purchased by Coventry council has failed to bring in £800,000 in promised cash, a report has said.

Coombe Abbey Hotel was budgeted to bring in £500,000 dividends - a sum of money paid regularly by a company to its shareholders out of its profits - for the council in 2019/20.

But the authority did not receive any, a Revenue and Capital Outturn report presented to the council’s cabinet said today (Tuesday, July 21).

Only £200,000 of a budgeted £500,0000 dividends was paid the previous year in 2018/19.

It means from an expected £1 million over those two years, a shortfall of £800,000 remains.

The hotel was controversially bought by the council for a reported £11m in 2017 as a way to plug the gap of lost government grants so it could provide better services to the public.

Three years ago councillors were promised the hotel would bring in revenue of around 10 per cent annually to the authority.

Council finance officers have put the loss partly down to cash-flow pressures brought on by the forced closure of the hotel during the coronavirus lockdown in March.

And while assured missed payments will be made “as soon as possible”, that will include only “some” of the historic dividends after the council took the decision to write them off, finance officers have said.

Opposition leader Cllr Gary Ridley told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “We never buttoned out how much was paid for the hotel but it is thought it is around £10m so 10 per cent of that is £1m a year.

“Because of the market the idea of it coming back into profit is in the distance for me, then they have to pay back the £1m loan.

“It is a really challenging situation and highlights why we should not have got involved in the first place.

“I accept it does not make sense to pay out dividends if you are not making any money but I do not understand why the £300,000 wasn’t paid the year before.”

I truly despair when it comes to the antics of this council.

If it wasn't so tragic, it'd be funny.

This went down hill when they bought in car parking fees which not many can afford on a low wage or social also when they closed the little cafe by the pool and then closing the boating lake the bird sanctuary then the paddling pool it will be even worse with so many job losses now with this Covid 19 as a child my parents took us there free parking it seemed to be doing well back then and back in the 80s when it was feee then so whats gone wrong . Another down fall when tourist or locals go there are signs saying your not allowed to take photos of the Abbey .
Perhaps they dont advertise well or the wrong people are running it.

the wrong people are running it.

CCC should keep out of things like this and focus on their legal obligations. I have yet to find a councillor qualified to understand business.

Coventry council's shares in Birmingham Airport and Coombe hotel drop in value by £15m

Council shares in Birmingham Airport and Coombe Abbey Hotel dipped by £15 million compared to last year, Coventry City Council’s records show.

Shares in Birmingham Airport Holdings Ltd fell from £29.25m on March 31 2019 to £17.86m a year later; while Coombe Abbey shares slumped from £11.35m to £7.39m.

The drop was recorded on March 31 at the very start of the coronavirus pandemic and appears in the authority’s annual Statement of Accounts.

An email from council officers to councillors this month said Coombe’s temporary closure due to Covid has not been taken into account in the valuation, but the fall resulted from "difficult trading conditions" up to the end of 2019.

Both investments could have seen their standing worsen further since then however, with the hospitality and aviation industry particularly hard hit by Covid-19.

The council said the hotel remains a “good investment” with time for shares to recover, however opposition leader Cllr Gary Ridley has billed it as “more bad news”.

Cllr Ridley said: “We have been promised Coombe will generate returns of 10 per cent but we have had to bail it out on more than one occasion, had business stopped by Covid and now the value has dropped by £4 million.

“This raises the question: did we pay more for it than it was worth? The big concern is this was done before everything that is going on so are we going to find a further fall in it?”

Council considering Coombe Abbey Hotel loan to save venue from closure



Coombe Abbey Hotel faces closure within weeks without a cash injection city leaders have said.

Hammered by the Covid-19 epidemic, the venue is close to exhausting its cash reserves leaving it unable to pay staff wages and other bills.

Members of Coventry City Council will now discuss an immediate cash-flow loan to keep the business afloat until it is able to re-open as per government Covid-19 rules.

If the loan is not approved, the venue will be unable to pay bills and wages from April, which, the council said, would leave 65 jobs at risk.

Since March 23 last year, the hotel has only had 78 normal trading days and has already received a short-term loan from the council which is due to be repaid in December.

Like most other hotels of its size, the management company has applied for a government-backed Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) but has been refused due to the fact it is owned by a local authority.

Total revenues for the business fell by 70 per cent in 2020 as a result of the pandemic, but the hotel is hoping to get back on its feet once the country is out of lockdown.

Councillor Richard Brown [pictured], Coventry City Council’s cabinet member for finance and resources, said he believed the loan would protect a valuable business and a much-loved asset for the city.

He said: “Coombe Abbey Hotel has, like all hotels and businesses in the leisure sector, had an extremely difficult year as a result of COVID-19 and the restrictions that has brought.

“The hotel has taken the full government support of furlough schemes, HMRC support and business rate relief, but next-to-no revenue has been coming into the business for almost a year, although it has still had bills to meet.

“It has been unable to access funding through the government-backed CBILS scheme like similar hotels which means the only options are to close, seek funding elsewhere or from the Council.

“It is the city’s asset and one that has a bright future which can be seen in the business it has already secured once the Coronavirus restrictions are lifted.

“The loan we are proposing to give the business is being made on commercial terms and will be repaid in full by the hotel."

The proposed loan to Coombe Abbey will be debated by councillors at Cabinet committee on Tuesday March 9 and at Full Council on Tuesday 16 March 2021.