YES! failure contributes to firm's £1.7m loss

THE company behind the failed £350 million Yes! Project in the Rother Valley has reported an annual loss of £1.2 million

Oak Holdings reported the negative annual outcome after a year in which the entertainment and leisure scheme was finally scrapped and its contract to run Rother Valley Country Park was torn up.

Oak said this week that the major element of the loss within its discontinued activities arose from the making of a £1.2 million provision against the value of land which it said had little value above the bare agricultural value at which it is being sold back to the vendor.

Rother Valley Country Park Ltd (RVCP) and Rother Valley Steam Railway Ltd had traded profitably before inter-group management charges up to the time of the termination of the interim management agreement, Oak said.

In the year to October 31, 2011, Oak made a loss of £571,654 from continuing activities on revenue of £54,587 and a total loss for the period of £1.7m after losses associated with the Yes! Project were factored in.

Since losing the project, and the resignation of the company’s chief executive Steve Lewis, Oak concluded it could no longer continue the activities of property development or consultancy.

Instead, the company, which has undergone a Company Voluntary Agreement to deal with its debts, is now focusing on expansion within the leisure sector.

The company is being renamed Pires Investments with the disposal of the remaining trading assets of Oak Holdings.

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