Letter to David Goldstone on the Orbit sculpture

Dear David,

Further to your letter to the Chair of the Regeneration Committee and your appearance before the Assembly’s Plenary earlier this week, I write to request answers to the questions I raised and other consequential issues .

 

I would be grateful if you could provide me, at your earliest convenience, answers to the following:

 

  1. Why and how did the £6m loan grow to £10.6m, and when ?
  2. Are we charged interest on this loan and if so, on all of it or part?
  3. How much interest has accrued on the £6m / £10.6m loan from ArcelorMittal since it was taken up?
  4. What is the interest rate, and is this fixed or variable?
  5. By how much a year is the loan growing due to interest charges ?
  6. Is the loan subject to compound interest charges?
  7. Your 23rd Feb. letter to the Regeneration Committee states that the AMO loan will not be repaid during the current ten year plan period. By the end of the current ten year plan in 2022, how much do you expect to have incurred in interest costs on the loan; and how much do you expect to remain to be repaid?
  8. Please confirm when the LLDC expect the Orbit to have generated sufficient profits to pay off the loan in its entirety ? 
  9. Does the £3.5m cost of installing the slide fall exclusively to the LLDC? Is this being funded by further borrowing, and if not how, otherwise?
  10. Are there any other loans linked to the Orbit, and if so please give full details, including to the questions as above for any such loans?
  11. At around £17 per person, do you believe the Arcelor Mittal Orbit will prove a competitive family attraction for London?   what will the price for a family ticket be? will there be other discounts and if so, what?
  12. What is the evidence base for your projections of increased visitor numbers after the slide is completed ?
  13. Do your projections of increased income take into account discount charges for admission, e.g. for family tickets? If so, how many visitors are you expecting to pay full price, how many as families, and how many on other discounted arrangements?
  14. Is there a business case, or revised business case, for the Orbit with the slide to include the additional investment costs , If not why not? If there is can you share this with us, if not why not?

 

I look forward to your response.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Andrew Dismore AM

Labour London Assembly Member for Barnet and Camden

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