Concerns are being raised about the transparency of the controversial deal to take over the Winter Gardens by the Hambrough Group.
One of the most important issues for the Ventnor community are the details of what will happen in the refurbishment of the building, as the Winter Gardens is an icon of Ventnor.
Refurbishment details kept secret
Sadly the specifics of what the Hambrough Group propose to when repairing the building are inexplicably being made secret, despite the best efforts of VentnorBlog to have them disclosed. Surely this information should be public.
One of the documents that has been publicly released was called “Best and Final Proposal of Robert Thompson’s Hambrough Group for Ventnor Winter Gardens” (which VB has attempted to interpret from legalese into English).
It talks about the amount of money the Hambrough Group will spend repairing the building after years of under-investment by the Isle of Wight council (they’ve always been responsible for the building itself).
It’s mentioned … but not available
In it, it says, “the details of this [investment] are to be agreed between the parties but will include the refurbishment of the existing building as detailed in the proposals submitted at the bidding stage by the Hambrough Group” (our emphasis).
We looked everywhere, but couldn’t find this apparently key document.
Given the details of the refurbishment are key to the public understanding of what is proposed, VB asked both the Isle of Wight council and the Hambrough Group for what is included.
Council refused as “commercially confidential”
Writing to Gavin Foster of the council’s ‘Comms department’, asking to see the submitted proposal, we were refused – and therefore you too are blocked dear reader. He replied saying the details were “commercially confidential at this stage” and suggested we write to Robert Thompson at the Hambrough Group … which we did.
Robert Thompson: Council says no
Robert Thompson replied, “We have been requested by the IOW Council not to release any plans until the deal has been done.”
We asked him again, pointing out that seeing the details of the refurbishment would seem perfectly reasonable. Again Robert Thompson declined.
Growing concerns
There is a growing concern about this deal in Ventnor. Withholding documents which have will have a fundamental effect on this iconic building can do nothing to appease those concerns. Let’s hope that they both reconsider.
Image: spin_spin under CC BY-ND 2.0
