Council sinks additional £1.25m into struggling Exeter Science Park as company unable to repay £7m debts
Council sinks additional £1.25m into struggling Exeter Science Park as company unable to repay £7m debts - Exeter Observer
https://exeterobserver.org/2024/06/15/exeter-city-council-sinks-1.25m-into-struggling-exeter-science-park-company-unable-to-repay-7m-debts-serial-scrutiny-failures-emergency-meeting-increase-exposure-company-rescue-plan-risks-repeating-earlier-strategic-mistakes/
Serial scrutiny failures continue as emergency meeting held to increase city council exposure to joint venture to more than £2 million on top of £450,000 project costs plus £950,000 guarantee but rescue plan risks repeating earlier strategic mistakes.
Exeter City Council is to sink an additional £1.25 million into Exeter Science Park after it emerged that the joint venture is unable to repay a total of £7 million in debts owed to or guaranteed by its shareholders, which also include Devon County Council, East Devon District Council and the University of Exeter.
Exeter Science Park is the third city council company to run into trouble after the dissolution of Exeter City Futures, which received more than £1.5 million of public funding, and losses of £4.5 million incurred by Exeter City Living that the council has yet to recoup.
The council’s external auditor recently criticised the council’s approach to governance and financial management of all three companies, identifying a range of issues including lack of performance monitoring, lack of objectives against which performance could be monitored and lack of oversight by councillors.