Council leader Bella Sankey has called for a formal apology from the Green Party for their role in the funding of the Brighton i360 after the controversial attraction heads for administration.
Brighton and Hove Council’s leader slammed the i360 as a “monument to Green Party failure” after the company behind the attraction filed for bankruptcy with over £50 million of debts.
The Labour Party has slammed the Greens for their involvement in agreeing the financing of the project with £36 million of public money.
Ms Sankey said: “Today is a day of shame for the Green Party and a sad day for Brighton and Hove. Their calamitous decision to loan a vast sum of public money to this failed business venture has left the residents of Brighton and Hove £51 Million out of pocket.
“This will be their enduring legacy to the city – a huge debt that will be left to generations of residents to repay.
“Our council must now repay their folly amounting to over £2 million each year for the foreseeable future – money that could’ve been spent on nurseries, play areas, public toilets, preventing homelessness, road repairs, transitioning to Net Zero and dozens of other vital local services.
“Residents deserve a formal apology from the Green group of councillors and Green MP Sian Berry for the ruinous decision made by their party, against Labour advice, which has saddled us with millions of pounds of debt.”
The loan, agreed in 2014 under a Green minority administration, saw £36.2 million of taxpayer money used to finance the i360 project.
Proposals to increase the loan from the Public Works Loan Board were voted through seven to three at a meeting in 2014 where then-Brighton Labour leader Warren Morgan said there was a “question mark as to whether the council should undertake such a financial undertaking rather than it being for the developer to do so”.
Accounts released in July this year show Brighton i360 Ltd paid £700,000 to the council in June 2022.
The company has since been able to pay just £250,000 to the council from July 2022 to July 2024.
In that period, Brighton i360 has repaid its debt at a rate of 0.25 per cent a year.
At that rate the loan would have been fully repaid in 2424.
Brighton’s Green Party and Sian Berry were approached for comment.
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