• The agreement between SBC and Moirai was signed in March 2012. In January 2013, the lease was varied at the request of Moirai. The revised terms included the following:

• Moirai’s obligation to provide a minimum area of development on the Oasis site was lifted.

• SBC gave up its option to purchase back the Oasis if no development takes place.

• Should recovery of debt be required as a result of loan default, the bank would be able to sell the lease into the open market.

• In January 2011 the Council invited expressions of interest to build a new leisure centre based on the former Clares site. The plan originally submitted by Moirai showed a ski centre, 7,500 seat arena and hotel on the Clares site.

However, in March 2013, Moirai presented a revised plan for the site, moving the arena (reduced to 6,500 seats) to the south side of the Oasis and apparently leaving half the Clares site vacant.

• Moirai said an application for outline planning application would be submitted in June 2013 (it had previously been expected in March that year).

• At the beginning of May 2014, the application had still not appeared on the council’s planning pages. An application for outline planning permission is now expected later in 2014.

• Oasis Operations Ltd, a management company set up by Moirai, was declared insolvent in 2013 (The London Gazette). The directors, who had resigned earlier in the year, are currently named by online data company Companycheck as directors of other Moirai companies.

• According to Companycheck, at the beginning of May 2014 two of the Moirai companies, Oasis Waterpark Ltd and Moirai Capital Investments (Swindon) Ltd, had recommended credit limits of £0.00. Companycheck could not assign them a risk score as it was too long since they filed audited accounts.

On 8 May 2014 Oasis Waterpark Ltd. had filed accounts and the credit limit has been raised to £25,000 with a credit score of 40 out of 100.

According to the lease variation referred to above, Oasis Waterpark Ltd is the company with the lease on the Oasis.

the time the agreement was signed in March 2012, Mr Martin Barber was described as the Chairman of Moirai. Mr Barber’s directorship of Moirai Capital Investments Ltd ended on 17 February 2014. (CompanyCheck)

• Mr Barber said in March 2012: “We are ready to press forward enthusiastically with the first phase, the refurbishment of the Oasis Leisure Centre. . . We have already plans in hand for the replacement of the Dome”.

…

I don’t know anything about finance, and I do not know what is going on at the Oasis. Clearly these little gobbets of information do not present anything like the whole picture, and they may well be misleading.

However, I question whether, as early as March 2013, when the Council report included the option of “an Oasis type deal”, the council should not have been keeping a closer eye on developments at the Oasis.

I question whether Swindon people should feel confident that the Oasis provides an encouraging model for the future of their leisure centres and golf courses.

In the light of the lease variation agreed in January 2013, I question whether Swindon people can have any confidence that the terms of a lease agreed with a private sector operator to take over the leisure centres and golf courses will not be altered in future at the request of the leaseholder.

And I question whether the Oasis model suggests that Swindon Borough Council is professionally equipped to make a deal with private sector operators over the future of the leisure centres and golf courses which will be to the advantage of the town.”

The Oasis, Swindon Leisure Centres & the Golf Courses

East Devon District Council can now openly discuss the £18m project after winning a legal battle against two tenants.

They hope it will attract families, couples on nights out, teenagers, water sports enthusiasts, rainy day and winter visitors and entice the ‘holiday park crowd’ into the town.

The redeveloped area would include eight eateries, including cafes, restaurants and bars.

There’s set to be three shops too, selling water sports clothes and equipment.

Councillor Andrew Moulding, deputy leader of the Council and Chairman of Exmouth Regeneration Board, said:

“This is an exciting time for the town and there are some great projects being brought forward by the council.

“AH [Alison Hayward, EDDC] gave an update on the Queens Drive development. She reported that she had been involved with a litigation process in Court in Exeter and Bristol which had lasted 10 days. This was regarding obtaining vacant possession for two sites at Queens Drive that were essential for the delivery of the scheme. This litigation had slowed the delivery process for the development. There was also an issue of using car parking spaces for compounds for the work as these would be needed in the summer months for car parking spaces for visitors.

The Board noted that the decision from the court case would not be available until January 2016. However, Grenadier Estates were moving their reserved matters planning application forward for the road, car parks and compound

Redevelopment of the fun park was not scheduled to occur until ‘phase three’ of this plan, earmarked for a later date.

However, EDDC now says it needs to fill in the park’s two boating lakes sooner, in order to create a site compound for contractors working on phase one of the redevelopment – the realignment of Queen’s Drive.

The plan to move the road is in a separate planning application, which was backed by a majority of members of Exmouth Town Council’s planning committee – although some said it was premature with detailed plans for the whole area not yet revealed.

However, considering an application to fill in the lakes, councillors voted to defer until legal action regarding the site had been concluded, and a public consultation could be carried out.

Councillor Maddy Chapman said: “I ask this be deferred until after the court cases, and until we know what’s happening, and we can go out to public consultation and we all know what we’re doing.”

Councillor Steve Gazzard said: “The whole idea, as I understand it, was to see what the people of Exmouth would like to see on that site.

“If you are going to fill in two ponds, I take it, rightly or wrongly, that a decision has already been made. I don’t like that.”

An EDDC spokesman said: “The applications considered by Exmouth Town Council have been submitted to ensure that the relocation of the road and car park can move forward at the earliest opportunity. We are currently going through a legal process with the fun park tenant and it would be inappropriate to make any further comment at this stage.”

Cllr Ben Ingham picked up her point, saying that the Council should “tell the truth”, that their Exmouth seafront plans were to make money to fill an anticipated gap in their finances. It was “total rubbish” to pretend it was “for the wider benefit of Exmouth”.

Cllr Ingham also referred to concerns raised at public question time about EDDC’s choice of partnership company for the seafront development. SES had sent Councillors their research on the matter. But Cllr Cathy Gardner’s proposal that the Scrutiny Committee should check that due diligence had been properly done, was summarily dismissed by Leader Paul Diviani. “You are wandering into territory that is very dangerous”, he told her.