Council grants 10-year extension on Covid loan for performing arts company

A Blackpool performing arts organisation has had a Covid-era loan from the city’s council extended to support its recovery.

Blackpool Entertainment Company Ltd, which manages the Winter Garden complex of venues for the council, including the 2,800-capacity Opera House, has been granted an additional 10 years to repay its £2.5m Covid support loan.

The council also extended repayments on a £3.7m loan to Blackpool Transport, which operates the town’s trams and buses, by five years.

A report put before the council’s shareholder committee advised that if the council did not refinance the loans, the council-owned organisations would have to seek alternative financing at significantly higher interest rates.

“There were risks to the council in providing these loans,” said the report. “But these needed to be balanced against the risk to council as both shareholder and the wider town if these companies had ceased operation due to a lack of finance to address the changes in operation Coronavirus required.”