Row breaks out as council writes off Livi’s rent arrears

Sep 3 2009 by Alistair Watson, West Lothian Courier

A POLITICAL row has broken out over West Lothian Council’s decision to wipe out nearly £300,000 of debt owed to it by Livingston Football Club.

The club was placed into administration in July after previous owner Angelo Massone ran up debts of around £1.8 million.

Council leader Peter Johnston said if they had not accepted the deal with the administrator to write off the £286, 390.17 debt then the club would have gone out of business.

The local authority would then have been left with a state-of-the-art stadium with no team.

And he claims the council would have had to send in the bulldozers to Almondvale as they couldn’t have afforded the £200,000 maintenance bill to run an empty stadium.

Councillors also agreed a deal to reduce the annual rent of Almondvale from £140,000 a year to £20,000 this year and then £50,000 per year from next season.

The amount would rise back to £140,000 if the club ever regained SPL status.

But opposition councillors condemned the decision and said local services would suffer because of the loss of the money.

However, Councillor Johnston was adamant that the council had made the right decision to secure senior football in West Lothian.

He said: “The council along with Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs were the two biggest creditors of Livingston FC.

“HMRC have already agreed the deal and if the council had voted no to it then we would have been voting no to the voluntary credit arrangement.

“The option then would have been for the club to go into liquidation, and with no assets the council would not have received any funds at all.

“The easy option would have been to get a cheap headline by not writing the debt off.

“The most positive option, and the council’s aim, is that West Lothian’s state-of-the-art stadium is used for senior football.

“We have decided to work with the administrator and the new owners.

“We believe this is a far better option than forcing the club into liquidation. Like other creditors we hope that, in due course, the administrator will be able to make partial repayment of the sums due to us.

“We now have a complete change in ownership of the club. I believe they are the right people to take Livingston on and I look forward to having a long relationship with them built on mutual trust.”

But the opposition leader on the council, Graeme Morrice, says he has serious reservations with the council simply writing-off nearly £300,000 of public money with one stroke of the pen.

He said: “After all, it was the council pursuing the outstanding rent arrears that resulted in the club going into administration.ŠTo now give up on the debt doesn’t make sense.

“We fully understand the financial difficulties being experienced by Livingston FC.

“Indeed, the previous Labour administration was always very supportive of the club and encouraged community support.

“However, Livingston FC is a commercial company and the council wouldn’t let off any other West Lothian business that was due rent and rates – or even individual residents in arrears with their council tax or council house rent.

“With the council forgoing the £300,000 owed, this is money that now cannot be used for valuable local services.”

Livingston FC chief executive Ged Nixon praised the council for the move.

He said: “It more or less came down to a decision that if they were not in a position to write that debt off then the club would have been liquidated.

“They were stuck between a rock and a hard place.

“We are obviously happy with the decision they have made.

“We’re pleased at how supportive they have been of the football club and we will work to make sure nothing like this happens again.

“We are looking at initiatives that the club can run to put something back into the community to pay them back in some way.”