Swansea Council has lost out on almost £65,000 after a deal for a controversial city centre site went sour.It means the authority still has a £600,000 problem to solve.
Council bosses sub-let the former Pool Sanctuary site on The Kingsway to Klub Kaos last December.They agreed a six-month rent-free period, worth £25,000, as part of the deal.
But it has now been confirmed the council received hardly any cash from the backers, who were booted out of the site in June.
It means the authority still has to pick up the £60,000-a-year bill.
Concerns were raised over the deal when it was agreed last December.
The Post discovered that the company backing the scheme, Netech Computing, was listed as a residential address in Ipswich.
The council insisted at the time that all necessary checks had been done to protect the council - but a year on the council has missed out on 12 months of rent.
It has also still been unable to find a tenant for the site, in a busy city centre location.The then Labour-run council leased the former pool hall in May 2004 hoping to use it as the new home for an Activa gym, paying £50,000 a year for 10 years.
Two months later the new coalition running the council axed the plans and labelled the site unsuitable.Since then Swansea Council has been trying to find a way of covering the lease.
From July 2004 to September 2006, the site has cost Swansea Council £128,254.Plaid Cymru group leader Darren Price said: "It is of course worrying that the concerns that were raised by many individuals - and the local press - some time ago with regards to the suitability of the company in question have come to fruition.
"The process by which the cabinet took this decision has to be looked at.
"Officers state that the appropriate company checks were carried out but I would argue that those checks were anything but appropriate.
"The council has lost a key opportunity to recoup some of the losses that it has accrued since the decision to lease the pool sanctuary in 2004 with a knock-on effect on council services."
A spokesman for Swansea Council said: "The site remains on the market and some remedial work is being done in order to improve its marketability.
"In the case of Klub Kaos the usual company searches and other financial checks were carried out. The decision to let was approved by Cabinet, based upon the advice of our specialist letting agents.
"The club did not open until January this year - after the Christmas period.
"After it continually failed to pay the rent, to protect the Council's interest, action was taken to take the property back from Klub Kaos in June 2006."
