In the third part of our series, Property & Power, Expose News continues to investigate the murky world of commercial developments in the UK and beyond.
In Parts 1 and 2, we reported on an extraordinary court case in which the Isle of Man government is being sued for over £50 million for allegedly mishandling a community-boosting redevelopment bid.
The story revolves around a plan by a company called Sondica to build an international hospitality and entertainment complex – but seven years later nothing has happened, after a rival bidder won the contract instead.
Isle Of Man journalist and broadcaster Paul Moulton has been reporting on issues which affect the islanders for over 40 years.
Having worked at both ITV and BBC, he set up his own news and politics station ISLE OF MAN TV. He has dedicated his channel towards challenging the government on local issues and holding them to account, particularly on issues such as transparency.
He believes the Lord Street development is a headline story because residents are missing out on the type of state-of-the-art facilities, which can only be enjoyed thus far on the mainland.
But the economy is also being drained of vital jobs and investment which has gone elsewhere.
PAUL MOULTON: ‘Now, this is meant to be like the entertainment area for Douglas.
‘At night time, and weekends, people want to come down here and have a good time.
‘Some of the hotels on the main promenade of Douglas were due to relocate here, I understand at one point, to make this the sort of go-to area.
‘They’ve done it’s on the Quay side, they’ve made that sort of the entertainment area. It’s sort of worked, there’s certainly more activity down here.
‘We’ve got pubs and restaurants…
‘This is Lord Street… and this should have been the sort of jewel in the crown of the whole thing.
‘But alas, due to various issues I would love to know more about…. this has not happened… and court cases are on the way…
‘They’ve been promising the world…..but we are still left with just this bomb site in Douglas.’
‘So, for absolutely many years, I have stood around this spot talking about the fantastic designs…..what was going to be here.
‘And of course, look at it today, an absolute mess in place. It has been really let go, this this part of Douglas. A brownfield site at best, more a bomb site, really.
‘It seems some injustices possibly have been done. Certainly, it appears that the government have been involved in not doing enough in getting things done.
‘That’s their job. They shouldn’t be building anything themselves. It should be just getting the right people in to do the jobs.’
In the previous episode, Expose News revealed allegations of how the government-appointed consultants behaved improperly.
Property experts Lambert Smith Hampton were accused of failing to take reasonable care not to misstate, misrepresent or misdescribe Sondica’s tender.
The explosive claims were recently denied by the company
PAUL MOULTON: ‘It appears that has been a failure on this and yet again, we are looking at a bombsite of an area that should be the jewel in the crown of the Isle of Man.
On the day of recording this, we were expecting to be in court here in the Isle of Man to get some background of exactly what has happened in the past, because it doesn’t all add up to me. I’ve been looking at it.
‘It’s blurry at best.’
The regeneration project centered around an international Marriot hotel and a Michelin-starred restaurant, welcomed by many as a boost to tourism.
The £55 million complex was also meant to include a new public bus terminal, a glass wintergarden and a mutli screen Picturehousecinema in a bid to improve facilities for locals.
PAUL MOULTON : ‘There were the original owners then new owners took it, but there seems to be no fault between the two parties. It seems to be the government that’s caused the issues. Now, it seems that things haven’t obviously clearly go to plan because we’re still sitting here looking at this bomb site of a place.
‘That’s the incomprehensible bit, because I’ve done a bit of research on this and it doesn’t quite all fit for me, but I don’t know enough details.
‘But hopefully the court case will bring out the information we need to find out how this is going to progress and why it’s been delayed, what went wrong and who did what.’
In a previous High Court hearing, First Deemster. His Honour Andrew Corlett ruled that Sondica Group Inc should be given more disclosure to fight its case.
Sondica claim that the Department of Infrastructure made unlawful efforts to persuade Lambert Smith Hampton to change a key report to unfairly favour the rival bidder.
However, both the DOI and LSH dismiss the claims as baseless and without merit.
PAUL MOULTON ‘There has been a massive criticism of the Department of Infrastructure over the years.
‘So really there needs to be an inquiry to find out what is going on right now. And hopefully the DOI, as we call it here, can give their account of why this hasn’t happened
‘I think of the years been so much criticism of the Department for Infrastructure that they become totally risk averse because no one wants to make a decision. I think that’s how it looks to me.
The stage is now set for fight at the next hearing at the Island’s Courts of Justice.
PAUL MOULTON: ‘And I don’t know the ins and outs. That’s just my layman’s approach to what I do, cause I interview lots of people and we always come back to the issue of nothing seems to get done.’
