Riverside Centre / Council Fight: What’s Going On?: The Rumours

You’ll be aware of the disagreement between the Isle of Wight and the Riverside Centre has reignited.

Secret meetingBoth sides are playing their cards close to their chest which makes clear quotable news reporting very difficult, but someone claiming to have the inside story has been in touch with VentnorBlog.

All unverified
We haven’t been able to verify any of this information yet, but we thought that with the caveat that it may not be accurate, you’d still like to hear about it. As we’ve made it clear – it may be 100% incorrect.

Take it as billed …

Back in 1994
It’s been alleged that back in 1994, the board of the Riverside Centre temporarily signed over the ownership of the Riverside centre to the Isle of Wight council. The reason? A nifty accounting manoeuvre. Two members of the board were from the council.

We’ve heard elsewhere, also unconfirmed, that the council now refuses to accept that it was a temporary arrangement.

That’s what we’re told is the history, so jumping up to this year, what’s happened now?

200+ page dossier
We’ve heard from a number of sources, all unconfirmed, that a 200+ page dossier on the background about the history between the Riverside Centre and the council has been compiled by a law firm on behalf of the Riverside Centre.

From a single, unconfirmed source, we’ve heard that the Isle of Wight council has refused to even read this dossier until the Riverside pay the council what they claim is owed – around £200,000.

The Riverside Centre refuse to pay this amount until the council pays them money they say the IWC owe them.

So it’s deadlock.

More details this week
There’s a meeting at the Riverside planned for Wednesday this week where the Riverside tell VB they plan to layout all of the details of what’s been going on.

Do you know more?
If you have any more information to add to this story, please get in touch with us on 898 777 or via email

Background on the Riverside Centre
The Riverside Centre Limited is a registered Charity with a listing on the Charity Commission | on Open Charities | and Open Corporates. Riverside Ventures (Isle Of Wight) Limited is on Open Corporates.

Image: saaby under a CC BY-SA 2.0 license