Anger as 11 jobs are lost at Portland Spa Hotel (From Dorset Echo)

Anger as 11 jobs are lost at Portland Spa Hotel

9:10am Tuesday 19th May 2009 in News

Portland Spa Hotel

A BUSINESS owner who has been left with unpaid bills of more than £100,000 after Portland Spa Hotel went into administration said his situation is ‘sickening’.

It comes as 11 staff were made redundant yesterday, just three days after Portland Spa Hotel went into administration.

Trevor Barrett – owner of Barrett Electrical Services Ltd – said he has been going through a ‘horrendous time’ since learning that Portland Spa Hotel officially went into administration.

Other angry business owners that carried out a number of services for the four-star hotel have been left wondering if they will have their bills paid.

Mr Barrett said: “We carried out all of the rewiring for the hotel in November and December and we’ve been chasing the bills ever since.

“It’s had a significant impact on my business with all my staff having to take a wage cut.

“It’s had a huge effect and it’s just sickening when I think about it – first of all there were the excuses and carrot dangling and then there was just nothing.“ Mr Barrett has now decided to relocate his well-known family business from the Southwell Business Park to Easton because he says it has become ‘untenable’ to stay where he was. “We’ve been forced to downsize so I’ve opened up a new premises in Easton because the business park is now somewhere we just don’t want to be,” he said.

Another Southwell Business Park shop, Travis Perkins, has been left with bills of £70,000 unpaid.

Shop supervisor Tim Diment said: “It’s really put us on rocky ground in terms of staying open.

“They are just out of order really because they knew they were in financial difficulty yet they just kept ordering and now they’ve put all our three jobs here at risk.

“The first bill went unpaid in October and we let it ride thinking the money was there but then nothing else got paid from then on.”

Director of Portland Spa Ltd and Southwell Business Park, Roy Haywood said: “The administrators are going to keep the business going forward.

“There are hotel specialists that have been brought in to bring it back to where it should be.”

He added: “Whatever money there is will get shared between the creditors and the bank.

“It is sad for people that have got caught in it but most of them have been around for 12 years and they have seen the good times.

“We have got caught in the credit crunch and the devaluation of the housing market and sadly I think we will see more local businesses going the same way.

“When we started we spent so much money employing and supporting local tradesman and businesses in Weymouth and Portland and sadly they are the ones who have lost out.”

Mr Haywood said they now have to look forwards but are pleased that the hotel is able to run as usual.

“We have been buried in rumours for months and now we have got through that and have certainty.”

The accounting firm KPMG has been appointed administrator of Portland Spa Ltd and Southwell Estates Ltd.

Southwell Business Park itself has not been placed into administration.

Have you been affected by the hotel going into administration? If so contact Miriam Phillips on 01305 830985.