Margate Dreamland Creditors Get Just 20p in £

Former Thanet Councillor, Ian Driver, has revealed today that the operator of Margate Dreamland Amusement Park, Sands Heritage, issued a notice on 21 June terminating the Company Voluntary Arrangement {CVA} with its creditors, leaving them much worse off than expected.

The CVA was agreed on 23 December 2015 and required Sands Heritage to repay its creditors £3.7 million in full over a 5 year period.

The CVA had at its disposal the sum of £913,794 for immediate disbursement to its creditors. The £2.8 million balance was to be paid out of park operating profits over 5 years.

According to a High Court document passed on to Driver, which Driver will be publishing on his blogsite Ian Driver’s Green Thanet at http://thanetgreencouncillor.blogspot.co.uk/
Sands Heritage was, earlier this year, hopeful of finding an investor to allow it to make a final settlement offer to its creditors, however the investor appears to have withdrawn its offer.

In the meantime a combination of bad weather, the failure of Thanet Council to provide operational and income generating facilities on time, and delays in certifying the safety of some of the rides meant that Sands Heritage’s income projection for 2016 were much lower than expected meaning that the company would struggle to pay its debts.

As a result Sands Heritage entered administration on 27 May, cancelled the CVA with its creditors and instead of paying the outstanding £3.7 million has distributed £734,012 of the £913,794 it was already holding as a final payment to those it owes money.

This payment equates to approximately 20p in every £ owed to creditors Here is the breakdown the of payments

Trade and Expense Creditors owed £2,134,532 paid £431,775

Kent County Council owed £800,000 paid £172,000

HM Revenue & Customs PAYE/NIC owed £481,250 paid £82,973HM

Revenue & Customs VAT owed £295,939 paid £47,263

Said Driver “the cancellation of the CVA is incredibly bad news for those businesses who provided goods and services to Sands Heritage, instead of having their debts paid in full, as they were originally promised, they will be lucky to get back 20p in the £. This could place many companies in severe difficulties”.

He added “Thanet Council’s management of the Dreamland project has been an unmitigated disaster from start to finish , especially its appointment of an inexperienced amusement park operator who is now in administration with more than £3million in debts. Over £18million of public money has been invested in this project and there must now be an independent public enquiry into how well or otherwise Thanet Council has managed the spending of this money"

For more information contact Ian Driver on 07866588766