Back at the beginning of October when the delegated decision notice for a new lift at the Ventnor Botanic Garden (VBG) was released, we noticed an interesting item.
Item 11 on the report stated that the Royal Hotel in Ventnor had recently been awarded a ten-year catering contract at the VBG.
As we hadn’t heard about this previously, we thought we’d try and find out some more details.
Request for further information
We immediately wrote to the press office to ask what date the contract was awarded.
Rumours had been circulating that the contract hadn’t yet been signed due to ongoing negotiations between the Royal and the Isle of Wight council.
We’d also been told by a reliable source that the Royal had refused to sign the contract until a commitment to replace the existing unreliable lift had been made by the council.
Delegated decision made
Since then, a decision has been made by Cllr George Brown to spend up to £220,000 to replace the current incline lift at the VBG with a vertical shaft lift.
Still no answer from IW council
Three weeks on from the original enquiry, many reminders from us, and a promise by the press office, we have still not received details of that date.
A simple request one would think, after all, according to the Delegated Decision Notice 37/10,
The Isle of Wight Council has recently awarded a 10-year catering contract to The Royal Hotel, Ventnor. This centres around the provision of catering services on the site, but will also offer the opportunity for joint marketing and the development of an enhanced tourism and hospitality offer at the Garden. The most recent failure of the lift has had a measurable negative impact on the Royal Garden Cafe and has undermined the contract’s first year’s trading success.
Also waiting on other info
In addition to the simple request for the date the contract was signed, we’ve also asked few more questions in relation to the awarding of the contract and how much rent is being paid to the council for use of the VBG.
We’ll fill you in when we finally get an answer.
Image: Foxy Moron under CC BY 2.0
