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Mar 2023
Harrogate council to write-off £83,000 of ‘irrecoverable’ debt
Harrogate Borough Council will write-off over £83,000 of debt it’s owed from businesses, residents and housing tenants.
Cllr Graham Swift, the council’s cabinet member for resources, enterprise and economic development, approved two reports that said the debts would be “uneconomic to pursue further.”
The first report includes details of £44,167 worth of miscellaneous debt with the largest being two Harrogate Convention Centre invoices from Kerrison Craft Exhibitions Ltd worth £19,940.
The report says the exhibitions firm has been wound up and “there is little hope of any remuneration”.
The company was due to organise The British Craft Trade Fair (BCTF) and British Craft & Design Fair at the convention centre until 2025.
A Harrogate Borough Council spokesperson said the event owner affiliated to Kerrison Craft Exhibitions Ltd has died.
Paula Lorimer, director of Harrogate Convention Centre, said:
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The Local Democracy Reporting Service contacted the company’s liquidator, Opus LLP but it declined to make a comment.
Of the £44,167, there is also £3,717 worth of debt related to planning and £3,854 to waste and recycling.
The council will be able to recover £6,460.94 in VAT.
The report explains why HBC has decided not to pursue these debts any further:
Meanwhile, a second report was approved by Cllr Swift related to writing-off £39,059.11 from former council housing tenants.
However, it says the ‘substantial majority’ of this sum will be written-off because the tenant has died.
Although the report adds that some debts are from tenants who “abandoned their homes and remain untraceable.”
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