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An events company boss says his business has lost thousands of pounds after its flagship New Year’s Eve event on the now-shut i360 has been cancelled. John Jones and his company The Silent DJs held one of its biggest events of the year atop the landmark last New Year’s Eve, booking this year’s event “almost straight after”, he said. Now, after the Brighton i360 announced its immediate closure, the events company said it could lose as much as £7,000 from the cancellation of the event.
Co-owner John, from Worthing, said: “It’s the staff we really feel for – they are really good people who really do care and it is gutting that it has happened. “It’s probably going to hit us for £7,000-8,000. The New Year’s Eve silent disco is up there as one of the busiest nights for us along with Halloween.
“At the end of the day we still have a job – it is the staff that have been massively let down.” Recap: Brighton i360 closes and 'will not pay staff' John also runs silent disco events on Brighton Palace Pier for Halloween. He had “heard rumblings” about the i360 closing but had been re-assured as recently as last Friday that the event would still go ahead.
This lead the company to buy extra advertising and invest further in the night. John added that customers who had bought tickets directly through the company would be refunded while customers who bought tickets through Brighton i360 Ltd would be informed of the next steps. More than 100 members of staff were made redundant on Friday and were told that they would not be paid for their pre-Christmas work.
Employees will be forced to claim money back through the government’s Redundancy Payment Scheme. The closure of the i360 and appointing of administrators confirms that Brighton and Hove City Council will be saddled with £32 million in debt from the i360 project, which they will pay back until 2041..
