Muddy Waters

Today's piece by James Garrett looks at the continuing battle over the state of Watchet Marina and who will get the lease in the future.

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Muddy Waters

Somerset Council says it still hopes to hand over the management of Watchet marina to a failed businessman - despite the state of Watchet and a chain of other harbours, which led to a number of them being put into administration.

Now we appreciate that “failed” is a pejorative term, so let’s take a few moments to look at his record. We were able to trace 25 companies in which Mr Odling-Smee was a director shareholder or both.

Of these:

• 6 have been struck off and dissolved

• 5 are in administration

• 4 are in receivership

• 1 is in liquidation with a winding up order issued last month

Of the remainder the news is not much better:

• 3 are dormant with no sign of trading as yet

• 4 are trading but are “technically insolvent” as they have negative net assets

Only two are trading with positive net assets. What all the trading companies have in common, is that the accounts are long overdue at Companies House. So it is impossible to know the exact financial position of them

All that said one of the two trading companies with positive net assets (at least in December 2021, the last accounts to be filed) was Watchet Marina Limited.