The Swindon Labour Group Leader, Councillor Jim Grant, has called on Swindon Borough Council to terminate its Development Agreement with Moirai Capital Investments, following news that Moirai have breached its agreement with Swindon Borough Council.
The Swindon Labour Group Leader, Councillor Jim Grant, has called on Swindon Borough Council to terminate its Development Agreement with Moirai Capital Investments, following news that Moirai have breached its agreement with Swindon Borough Council.
The Labour Group Leader said he had obtained information that Moirai had breached its agreement with the Council by failing to obtain a planning application for its development master plan by the contractual deadline, March 13th 2014, and because of Moirai’s shell company, MW Contract Services Ltd (formerly Oasis Operations Ltd), going in to liquidation. Last month it was revealed that the shell company owed £850,000 to creditors at the time of its liquidation, including local small businesses like Storm Recruitment, based in Commercial Road, which is owed £4,721, and Carlton Services in Old Town, which is owed more than £2,000.
Councillor Grant said he had been told that if the agreement is terminated then the leases for phases 2, 3 and 4 (the former Clare’s site) of the proposed development will automatically terminate and the sites would then come back to the Council. However he’s been informed that the lease for the Oasis, which is phase 1, does not automatically terminate if the development agreement terminates, as this requires a fundamental breach of the agreement to happen.
The Swindon Labour Group Leader, Councillor Jim Grant, said:
“Following the recent revelations about Moirai’s handling of the Oasis development, I had asked Council Officers whether the company had breached its terms of agreement with the Council and I was told in no uncertain terms that they had. Morai have broken the terms of the agreement in different ways the most serious of which is that a shell company of theirs went into liquidation owing around £450k to HMRC and local companies.
When the development and long-term lease on the Oasis and surrounding area was proposed with Morai we did support the development because we felt regenerating the area in to a regional leisure destination was an exciting offer that the Swindon public would like to see and we had no reason to believe Moirai Capital Investments was anything other than a respectable company who would deliver on their commitments. However obviously new evidence has come to light that shows Moirai is not only failing to deliver on their commitments but also applying some questionable business practices which have affected local businesses in Swindon who have provided services to the Oasis and then have failed to be paid. We are standing up for those businesses as well as defending the interest of Swindon’s council-taxpayer.
It can’t be forgotten that the whole Oasis site is a hugely valuable site worth millions of pounds, so to give this site up for free to a company who have a track record in Swindon of failing to meet their commitments, doesn’t make sense to us in terms of delivering value for money to Swindon residents. And we think this decision will be supported by many those small businesses who are still owed money by Moirai’s shell company."