11 hours Ago
Yesterday, the news broke that Brighton’s i360 had shut its doors - here’s everything we know so far. The i360 opened to the public on Brighton seafront in 2016 . In July 2018, projections estimated a revenue of £11 million, although inflated figures forecast £12.
2 million. Public documents showed revenue of just £2.9m for the financial year ending June 30, 2021.
This was followed by British Airways pulling their sponsorship in January 2022, before the attraction’s total debt topped £50 million at the end of last year. In November, the business filed for insolvency, opening up the potential for investors to bid for the seafront site. Brighton and Hove City Council hit out at Green councillors for their “calamitous decision to loan a vast sum of public money to this failed business venture” , leaving behind “a huge debt that will be left to generations of residents to repay”.
Brighton i360 filed for insolvency in November (Image: Newsquest) The loan, agreed in 2014 under a Green minority administration, saw £36.2 million of taxpayer money used to finance the i360 project. Green MP for Brighton Pavilion Sian Berry said that she did not want to see the attraction torn down and wanted to help keep the area around the attraction “as vibrant as we possibly can”.
Now, it has been revealed that the i360 shut on Thursday, December 19, and will not reopen until a buyer is found. Administrator Interpath Advisory confirmed that 109 members of staff were made redundant with immediate effect without being paid their owed wages. Employees will be able to reclaim unpaid wages through the Redundancy Payment Service accessed on the government’s website.
A spokeswoman for Interpath said that Brighton i360 Ltd had “significant legacy liabilities” and that trading revenue had not been enough to fund both its operating costs and pay off its debts in recent years. Residents and employees impacted by the closure shared their thoughts with The Argus yesterday. One Brighton resident told The Argus that her sister, who worked at the i360, was told of the closure on Thursday, December 19.
She claimed that staff had been working overtime in order to honour Christmas events and commitments, adding: "It's shocking. "Those people have been working 60 or 70 hours a week and now won't get paid for it." Cerys Wilson and Jess Davis, both 18, who worked part time at the i360, said: “It’s really heart-breaking for everyone in there.
Cerys Wilson and Jess Davis (Image: The Argus) “It's a terrible time as well with Christmas coming up so we are really feeling for everyone. “They read a long statement about how we are made redundant and it’s going to be shut from now. “Everyone who works here are just amazing people.
“They are all very positive, everyone’s just trying to work through it.” Brighton’s branch of Unite the Union has vowed to “lobby the council to pay these workers their wages”. READ MORE: Council will investigate how it lent millions of public money for i360 It was also announced that Sixes Cricket located at the Brighton i360 has closed until further notice.
The business promised that customers would be refunded for their bookings and more information would be shared shortly. Councillor Jacob Taylor, finance lead for Brighton and Hove City Council, confirmed that the the agreement of the loan in 2014 would be investigated by an independent external audit. Cllr Taylor called the investment a “financial disaster”.
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