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

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

Good money chasing bad. It was a poor decision to lend the money in the first place, a decision made by people acting on emotion rather than using common sense. Councils should be forbidden from speculating with money they've taken from the electorate.

Yet again, it leaves the good citizens of this city holding the baby for hopeless council decisions. SNAFU!

Parts of Coombe Abbey Hotel closed to public as staff self-isolate



A popular Warwickshire hotel is set to lose of thousands of pounds after it was forced to close its bar and restaurant while staff self-isolate.

Coombe Abbey Hotel, near Binley, has shut one of its biggest money-spinners after kitchen staff were told to keep away in line with covid contact regulations.

The closure has also forced the cash-strapped hotel, which has been propped up by loans from Coventry City Council amounting to £5.8 million, to postpone two events planned this weekend.

The authority-owned hotel's Medieval Banquet and Murder Mystery Weekend, tickets for both of which start at £49.95, are due to be rescheduled.

In a statement, the hotel's Operations Director Ron Terry, said: "The health and welfare of our staff and guests has always been, and will always be, our main priority and we appreciate everyone’s patience and continued support at what is a difficult time.

"Unfortunately, members of our restaurant and kitchen team have been contacted by NHS Test and Trace to self-isolate.

"This sadly means we will no longer be able to resume service for afternoon teas, dinner, bar menu and room service for the remainder of the week, however breakfast will remain open.

"Our Mediaeval Banquet and Murder Mystery will also be postponed this weekend.

"Whilst this is a decision we have not taken lightly, we always endeavour to provide the best experience and high levels of service when dining with us, therefore we will be able to recommence service from Monday 26th July."

Mr Terry continued: "We would like to apologise to those impacted but we hope you understand that we have taken this decision to safeguard everyone in light of COVID-19 and it allows our staff to stay at home in accordance with Government requirements.

"Our team are currently communicating with those who have bookings with us, however due to the high levels of staff self-isolation, we kindly ask for your patience as we contact everyone.

"We want to reiterate that your safety is our top priority when visiting us and we have rigorous safety precautions in place following Government guidance.

"We would like to thank everyone of you for your continued support throughout the pandemic."

This latest closure will be a big blow to the hotel after it finally reopened its doors on May 19 for what was the first time since October 2020.

Like others in the hospitality industry, Coombe struggled in 2020 with the pandemic restricting it to just 78 regular trading days and revenue falling by 70 per cent.

Council-owned luxury hotel losing millions



A luxury hotel owned by Coventry City Council lost £1.4m a year over the past two years, leaked documents have revealed.

A private report by council officers to the scrutiny committee provided details of some of the local authority’s investments in private firms – including Coombe Abbey Hotel.

Trading losses of £2.8m recorded by private operator No Ordinary Hotels means expected dividends for the council of £3m over the next three years have now been revised down to zero.

The firm has been approached for a response.

Figures show the city council is owed £8.4m in outstanding loans to the operator.

The hotel, bought by the council for £9.1m in 2017, is now worth just £1.1m – an 88% drop - according to an external valuation commissioned by the authority.

Gary Ridley, the leader of the Conservative opposition on Coventry City Council told the BBC there was no justification for taxpayers to continue to prop up the business in the context of the wider financial picture.

Mr Ridley said: "The £1.4m loss is almost equal to 1% on the council tax. Now when they bought this they told us it was going to raise huge amounts of money for the people of Coventry. But it hasn’t turned out that way.

“If anything, it’s turned out to be a house of horrors, it’s been a nightmare investment and it’s time that the council dealt with this once and for all."

It was pure folly from the very beginning, driven by the egos of people who lack fully functioning brain cells.

Council urged to 'consider all options' over troubled Coombe Abbey Hotel



Coventry City Council has been urged to consider all options over the future of troubled Coombe Abbey Hotel. A council document leaked last week appeared to flag significant losses for the hotel, bought by the local authority in 2017.

Councillor Gary Ridley, leader of the opposition on the Labour-led city council, claims the hotel has lost £3 million under the council's ownership and must act fast to find a fix. "If I was leader of the council I'd be asking officers to go away and put together a list of options so we can make an informed decision," he told CoventryLive.

"We need to take an evidence-based approach to this so there's no knee-jerk reaction or fire sale of the asset. But I do think we should be out there looking at alternative uses for the site and alternative partnership arrangements."

The hotel's value is claimed to have fallen from £9 million to £1 million. The leaked report was claimed to have highlighted a £1.4 million loss over the last 15 months.

Cllr Ridley, head of Coventry's Conservative group, reckons the council would struggle to sell the hotel if it contemplated that route. "If you try and sell that hotel now as a going concern at the minute I do wonder who would take it on because the previous owners tried to sell it and I think we paid well over the odds for it," he said.

"Nine million pounds was utterly ridiculous. We were the freeholder on that site anyway. We already owned the physical hotel. The only thing we bought was the company and the lease. A crazy situation.

"We need to look at options. Whether those options include seeing someone will take it on, seeing if there's partnership arrangements, seeing if some of it could be used as apartments, I don't know.

"There's got to be a range of different things we can use it for, but until officers and labour councillors face up to the fact that we've overpaid for this asset, it's now costing us money and we need to deal with it, we're not going to make any progress."

Cllr Ridley said Coventry Conservatives had 'consistently voted against' acquisitions like that of Coombe Abbey and Tom White Waste. And he stressed that a Conservative-led council would not get involved in public investment projects as the Labour administration has.

"We're actually spending something like £17 million a year in interest payments because we owe more than £300 million in debt," he added. "A lot of these things like Coombe Abbey and Tom White Waste are all financed on debt and it's just plain wrong that we're exposing the taxpayer to that kind of liability when the focus should be on service delivery.

"I want to see a situation where this local council focuses on delivering local services and reducing debt rather than spending money on these zany schemes. We've got so many problems in this city we need to deal with.

"We need to deal with homelessness, the roads are crumbling, surfaces are all over the place and in desperate need of improvement, and we face a massive deficit for next year. That deficit is only being made worse by the fact this is losing money.

"They're going to have to, at some point, put money in to bail it out and it's not going to provide the resources we thought it would either."