Circuit of Wales, an interesting article from DS

[steve-e]

I meant to post this last week but life being what it is.. it's here now. Uploaded as JPG below..

This makes for interesting reading, from Dave Stewart of ThundersportGB.

Pages 06 - 09 Strange Things Happen V2 (1).pdf

(520.32 KiB) Downloaded 445 times

[steve-e]

[David Stewart]

And today on Crash.net a salient reminder of how chasing the big events can be catastrophic:-
http://www.crash.net/f1/feature/231895/ ... -park.html

Please send all law suits to:-
Jean-Claude Juncker
EU Commission
Brussells
Greater Germany.

Thank you..........

[Phil Davies]

Thanks for that Dave, as usual a really insightful piece, backed up with proper facts.
As you said in a previous post about this place, it will never get built - for all the right reasons.

It is interesting that Crash.net quote 'Brexit' as the reason that Aviva are backing off - ignoring the long established facts that are in the public domain!

[the gobshite]

At least he got his gardening done out of the deal

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/polit ... g-11420820

[ianw]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-sout ... s-36761998

[the gobshite]

And now it's gone up to £375 million.

£45 million to the Welsh economy? Maybe a tenth of that

[steve-e]

From that link above - thanks Mike!

A Welsh Government-funded company which aims to create 6,000 jobs by building a race track near Ebbw Vale was billed more than £35,000 for gardening work done at its boss’s £2.8m mansion, we can reveal.

Invoices passed to Monmouth Conservative MP David Davies show that on 17 occasions, bills were made out to the Heads of the Valleys Development Company by a gardening firm for work done at the home near Cambridge of Michael Carrick, whose brainchild the Circuit of Wales is.

[steve-e]

From that link above - thanks Mike!

A Welsh Government-funded company which aims to create 6,000 jobs by building a race track near Ebbw Vale was billed more than £35,000 for gardening work done at its boss’s £2.8m mansion, we can reveal.

Invoices passed to Monmouth Conservative MP David Davies show that on 17 occasions, bills were made out to the Heads of the Valleys Development Company by a gardening firm for work done at the home near Cambridge of Michael Carrick, whose brainchild the Circuit of Wales is.

[David Stewart]

They've spent £9,000,000.- already, why is nobody asking the question "What on?"

I know the answer to that question btw, but even I can't put it in print ............. yet (as some/a lot of the documentation relating to it is not in the public domain).

None of that money was sourced from private equity either, it all came from the taxpayer.

[NickO]

Sorry to go off-topic somewhat, but £9,000,000 is comparative "peanuts" to the £300,000,000 EXTRA Mr Cameron has just spent on the £3 Billion deal to buy the Nimrod replacements from Boeing.

If he had signed the deal before the referendum it could have cost us £300,000,000 less, as Sterling has devalued by 10% since then! And what planes have we been using to give us the cover these provide since 2010???

Might even have been better to keep 100% of the jobs in the UK by completing the Nimrod development and not demolishing the airframes and the rest of BAE Woodford in the process, (the factory where the Vulcan was designed built)?

[David Stewart]

That's not how defence payments work Nick. The price will be in Dollars FOB at the time of supply, not upon signature (just watch that price keep creeping up before delivery).

AND £9 mil is still £9 mil, which is a significant amount of money to pay for a pile of paper that actually means nothing. Nice work if you can get it.

[David Stewart]

And the latest plans (which still asked the taxpayer to take on over 83% of the risk) are rejected:-

-------------------------------------- (from Visordown & Wales Online)

CIRCUIT of Wales has seen its latest funding application to commence building work denied by the Welsh Assembly, but Economic Secretary Ken Skates has laid out new terms of agreement which need to be met to give the project the green light.

The Circuit of Wales project leaders, the Head of the Valleys Development Company, had been seeking loans of £90 million from the local councils of Blaenau Gwent and Monmouthshire after having its initial funding plan – to get the Welsh Assembly to underwrite the entire project – was rejected in April.

The latest decision has been sparked by the current economic uncertainty caused by Brexit and the government sees the risk of the revised plan as 'unacceptable'. Skates is set to confirm the project is still welcomed by the Welsh Assembly but will need to meet new terms.

"Unfortunately, despite the efforts of the project backers, this leaves only around 17% of the risk being taken by the private sector," Skates said on BBC News. "My door remains firmly open and I have urged them to revise their bid in such a way where the private sector takes more of the risk in order for this project to be taken forward.”

In the new funding plans 50% of the finance needed to complete the construction will have to be raised privately while 50% of the underwriting will also need to come from the private sector.

The Circuit of Wales project is set to be financially backed by insurance giants Aviva and it is not yet know how these latest requirements will affect its commitment to the project.

The Circuit of Wales is targeting the creation of between 4,000-6,000 new jobs over the next ten years through commercial developments, planned business relocations and motorsport-related opportunities.

The venture secured a five-year deal with Dorna which began last year and had originally hoped to move the event to Ebbw Vale in 2017 but after interruptions in confirming financial backing MotoGP has been delayed by 12 months, with the Welsh circuit expected to take over hosting duties in 2018.

Silverstone will host this year's British MotoGP and is likely to be called upon for the 2017 race but this is yet to be confirmed by Dorna.

---------------------------------------------

So what happened to the claims that:-
A) All the funding was in place.
B) Our new solution will be fully in place by the beginning of May.

It's a scam, which is a shame really because the whole place could actually be built and in operation for slightly less than £85 million if the sticky fingered business bankers would keep their money grubbing fingers out of the pie.

[Phil Davies]

Now I was always a dimwit in the maths class at school, but even I am struggling to keep track of all the disparate figures being banded about as to the cost of this 'proposal'.
'If' 'someone' is asking for a public money loan of £90M and that is "83%" of the required funding for the 'development' (because "17% is private sector") - that makes the development worth in total £109M (roughly) - so how come the 'headline' 'value' banded about is £347M - based on the declared 'value' what are they actually proposing to build with that borrowed money, a couple of corners?
If it was a 'loan' the interest payment on £90M at 1% straight is £17,307 PER WEEK, I cannot see a revenue being generated that services that level of dept payment for 'just' a circuit (because that is probably all you can build for £90M out of your announced £347M for the whole development), or is the plan to bust the company carrying the (public money) loan at the first payment date, having already moved all the assets into another 'fresh' company that suddenly gets/buys for £1 the exclusive rights to function at the circuit, especially seeing as there is a 'funding' compnay and a 'rights holder' company (and lord knows how many more companies centered around the same crew).
And as you say Dave, the GP rights were £4.5M (stumped up by the public purse, hey ho), so what has the other £4.5M, of the £9M, been spent on (apart from probably more gardening!).
The venturing conglomorate does not have a single declared asset that it has paid for (the GP rights 'ownership' is publicly funded), let alone displays that it is serious about putting ANY of its own money into the venture - so why would anyone else (with a sensible business head) put a single penny in.

Hmm, if it looks unpleasant and smells unpleasant, you probably cannot polish it - only roll it in glitter. This one is a real stinker.

[steve-e]

Phil