Arts group calls on council to pay Coventry City of Culture Trust's debts

An arts group has called on a council to pay out £1.5m it is owed in debts by Coventry City of Culture Trust after it entered administration.

Assembly Festival, which ran the Assembly Festival Gardens, said its future was at risk and appealed for the city's local authority to "take responsibility" for the situation.

The Trust had been due to oversee a three-year legacy programme.

Coventry City Council says it "appreciates the concerns" raised.

It comes as the West Midlands Mayor Andy Street called for an investigation into Coventry City of Culture Trust after it announced on Tuesday it had entered administration, with 50 people losing their jobs.

A letter to Coventry City Council was sent by Assembly Festival's artistic and company director William Burdett-Coutts on Friday.

The letter, seen by the BBC, said: "Assembly Festival worked for nearly two years on delivering the Assembly Festival Garden, the centre piece of the year, for the people of Coventry.

"With the news that the Coventry City of Culture Trust has been placed into administration we are left in a position of being owed £1,476,550 of which £419k is VAT."

The council also agreed a £1m loan to the Trust last year, which councillors have since been told is unlikely to be repaid.

The letter goes on to say the council should take responsibility for repaying the debt "both from a moral and legal point of view".

"Coventry now faces a situation where all the good that came out of the year will be severely marred," Mr Burdett-Coutts wrote.

Assembly Festival Gardens ran for two summers in 2021 and 2022 as a pop-up venue in Coventry as part of the City of Culture celebrations.

The attraction put on 140 shows and welcomed almost 500,000 visitors.

A spokesperson from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport said the government was "monitoring the situation" and "hopes to see local partners continue to work on the legacy of Coventry as City of Culture 2021".

In a statement Coventry City Council said "City of Culture Trust is a separate, independent organisation to which the council had no direct control over".

A spokesperson for the authority added: "The council has also not provided any form of indemnity or guarantee to Assembly Festival on the sums they have incurred as a consequence of any contractual arrangement they have with the Trust."

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