Torbay Council told to tighten procedures

Report published after high-anticipated festival gets pulled

Torbay Council is being urged to tighten up its procedures after the collapse of a star-studded food and music festival earlier this year cost it tens of thousands of pounds.

The festival on Torre Abbey Meadows in May would have featured music from the likes of UB40, The Vamps and Razorlight, with well-known TV chefs on site too.

But the festival was cancelled just weeks before it was due to go ahead, as the company behind the event – Case Live – stopped trading and appointed liquidators. Hundreds of local people were left out of pocket after buying tickets.

At the time the Local Democracy Reporting Service revealed that Manchester-based Case Live was only set up in August 2022  and had no formal record of ever having organised events or filed accounts. Its 26-year old chief executive Toby Darvill was behind a number of tiny companies that had been dissolved.

Torbay Council’s agreement to give £20,000 to the company reassured other businesses and big-name acts that the event had credibility.

One local company owner who provided services to Case Live for the festival, told the LDRS: “We were reassured that the event was backed by the council with substantial public funding. Arguably we should have done more checks ourselves, but when you have a council telling you it’s a high-quality event and that businesses should get involved, you take it at face value.

“We’ve lost £2,000, and Torbay taxpayers have lost £20,000. Serious questions need to be answered about what background checks the council had done into Case Live before giving them council tax money.”

After the collapse of the festival the council referred people who had bought tickets to a Which magazine article for guidance.

Now an independent inquiry into the council’s handling of the issue has been published, and will be discussed by members of the bay’s overview and scrutiny committee next Wednesday.

It says the council needs to introduce more safeguards to ensure it does not happen again.

A statement issued by Case Live at the time said the company was ’extremely disappointed’ to have had to call off the English Riviera Food and Drink Festival.

It said: “The rising costs and strain on disposable income have sadly left the event unattainable. We know this is incredibly disappointing for all stakeholders, as it is for us as organisers and not a decision we’ve been able to make easily.

“We apologise for any inconvenience caused. We would like to thank everybody for their support, including artists, partners, suppliers, local businesses and Torbay Council.”

Torbay’s Conservatives called for the inquiry into how the event was handled. They said Case Live appeared to have no track record for running such large events and wanted to know why the cancellation had been left so late.

In calling for the inquiry, Cllr David Thomas (Con, Preston) said: “There are many questions to be asked about what led to a collapse where many people across our bay now face losing hundreds of pounds.”

He said there were questions around how Case Live could have been selected as the council’s partner, and what due diligence was carried out.

The summary of the Devon Audit Partnership’s inquiry has now been published along with the agenda for next week’s meeting.

It says the council went through two tender processes for a company to put on the festival, and although they were both unsuccessful, the council was keen to go ahead with the event. A ‘waiver’ process saw Case Live getting the contract on the understanding that it scaled back from its original tender.

Case Live described Case Entertainment Group as its parent company for a three-year contract worth £120,000. The council says it has already spent £20,000 on the festival that never happened.

The first event was due to take place during the late May bank holiday, but was called off on 26 April.

In his report, Tony Rose, head of the Devon Audit Partnership says: “Issues were identified with opportunities for the control framework to be strengthened.

“The waiver document followed standard processes, but it contained some unsupported statements and information that may have been open to misinterpretation, which could have impacted upon the ultimate decision.

“We recommend that the waiver process should be strengthened.”

Mr Rose says that while a financial check was undertaken on Case Live, none was undertaken on Case Entertainment as the parent company.

“Although due diligence is included in the procurement process for supplier evaluation and selection, there is opportunity to strengthen this to consider company history in greater depth and any associated risks they may pose to the contract,” he writes

Summing up, Mr Rose says ‘very detailed’ recommendations have been given to the Torbay council officer responsible for administration.

But he says the ‘overarching lesson’ is that all information gathered during procurement should be reviewed constantly to make sure it supports statements and decisions made.

The waiver process should also be strengthened ‘to ensure that it is as robust as the council’s tender process’ and the history of companies related to bidders should be documented and assessed.

The council says it is a restructuring its procurement, contract management and commissioning team, and is working on ‘comprehensive and robust’ processes.

Mr Rose also says there were areas the Devon Audit Partnership had been unable to examine because limited information was available. He adds: “The council may wish to consider engaging the police to request wider investigation into the companies.”

The council says it understands that police have been made aware.