Coventry City of Culture loan row sees partners end support

Coventry City of Culture Trust's decision to accept a £1m bail-out loan has led to two organisations ending their partnership with it, the BBC has learned

The University of Warwick and Coventry University have both confirmed staff have quit the trust's board.

The universities said they disagreed with the trust's decision to accept the loan from the city council last year.

The trust said it continued to work with both institutions.

Coventry was named UK City of Culture for 2021, attracting millions of pounds in investment.

The city is supposed to fulfil a three-year legacy programme, delivering cultural projects long after holding the title, but since the loan's issue in September, the trust has this year turned to administrators, saying it faces financial difficulty.

Councillors were briefed earlier this month the loan was unlikely to be repaid.

Coventry University's trust board member, Professor Judith Mossman, resigned over the loan in October, along with Warwick University's board member Professor Simon Swain.

A Warwick University spokesman said: "We did not support additional public money being used to keep the charitable trust going and ended our membership of the board and the audit committee as a result. Two senior colleagues resigned from roles on the City of Culture board and audit committee."

A statement from Coventry University said: "The partnership was ended earlier than expected. We withdrew because having regard to all the relevant factors we could not support the proposal to accept a loan from the council."

Coventry University says it is also owed money by the trust and is taking steps to recover the funds.

Both universities had been principal and funding partners. They were expected to remain principal partners as the trust worked to deliver the promised three-year legacy programme, although, according to the trust, no money from the institutions had been committed to that end.

In a statement, the trust said: "Although representatives from the universities no longer sit on the Board of the Trust, we continue to work with both institutions on a variety of initiatives."

The trust said previously it hoped to clarify its future by the end of the month. "We remain committed to securing the legacy ambitions," it said at the time.

The trust has cancelled some meetings about commissioning future projects, and there are no events listed beyond this month on the Coventry 2021 website.

It has also emerged that the trust chief executive, Martin Sutherland, will leave his role in the coming weeks, and no replacement has been announced.

Last week, a cross-party group of councillors on the council's scrutiny board called for an emergency meeting with the trust over concerns about funding.

Up to 10 people have left their positions as directors of the trust in the past 12 months, according to Companies House records.

There are currently eight board members in place, with none from the council.

The local authority previously retained a constant board presence. That ended when council chief executive Martin Reeves left his position at both the authority and trust board on 31 January.

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