THERE is growing anger among those involved in a deal to bring an exclusive Marriott hotel and conference centre to the grounds of Newquay airport that Cornwall Council has gone silent on the £28-million project. Their ire has increased this week with the news that a deal by the council to find a financial partner to ‘privatise’ the airport has also stalled.

An insider involved with the previously ratified deal to bring a 200-bed Courtyard by Marriott hotel to the airport told us: “The council loses one deal and is at risk of losing another. No one has been in touch with us. They’re at risk of losing this deal for a Marriott hotel through inactivity.”

We have also been told by those involved in the hotel project that they were in the process of speaking to the ombudsman and requesting a judicial review against Cornwall Council had the airport partnership deal with American asset management company Adynaton / Westcore gone through.

That deal, which was due to be approved by the council’s Conservative Cabinet this week, has fallen at the last hurdle. Although the council is saying it still hopes it can be resurrected.

We understand that over £1.2-million of taxpayers’ money has so far been spent on various aspects of the thwarted airport ‘privatisation’ deal, including appointing global real estate company CBRE to find a financial partner to run the council-owned airport and its 650-acre estate.

We reported last October that there was “deep concern and disquiet” on the part of one of the world’s biggest hotel chains, Marriott, and its partners over Cornwall Council stalling the project to build a major hotel and conference centre at Newquay airport, which would support hundreds of jobs in the area and deliver a long-term £200+million investment.

The council had been in talks with Fairbairn Capital – a private equity firm -about bringing the first Marriott hotel in Cornwall to the airport in late 2022 after the local authority’s agents Vickery Holman marketed a 1.55-hectare site at the Aerohub Business Park, adjacent to the airport, for use as a hotel with planning permission attached.

A formal offer was made to the council in December 2022, with heads of terms agreed the following February. Machinations by the council to find a financial partner to run the airport started later that year and those involved in the Marriott project say it was then that the council went silent on their own deal.

Since the airport deal was put off last week, insiders involved with the hotel group say they have again approached the council stressing that now is the perfect time to move on bringing the five-star hotel to Cornwall. If built, the complex would include the largest conference facilities in the county.

One of those involved, who is based outside Cornwall, added: “They’ve got a fully funded hotel ready to go, with full teams, and no one can be bothered picking the phone up.”

Andy Snapes, a respected figure in the construction industry in Cornwall, posted his concerns on social media. He said: “Having seen its potential ill-founded deal with an American investor for Cornwall Airport Newquay go down in flames, you would have thought that Cornwall Council might look to reach for the fire hose of recovery.

“If having wasted over £1.2-million of Cornish rate payers’ money was not enough, it now looks like the one immediate opportunity to begin to recover the council’s position at the airport is also being spurned. The opportunity to have a new hotel and conference centre that would help to support the future viability of our airport continues to be ignored by both the Tory administration and officers alike.”

He added: “With the wreckage of the failed Adynaton/Westcore deal still smouldering on the lawns of County Hall, you might have thought that an oven ready good news deal that has been sat on the shelf for over 23 months might be grasped with both hands by our council … but surprisingly not!

“What message does this send to other prospective investors about Cornwall being open for business? The questions around the conduct of the council administration continue to go unanswered, the rate payers’ of Cornwall and prospective investors deserve better … much better.”

Responding to questions about both the Marriott and airport partnership deals, a spokesperson for the local authority told us: “Cornwall Council is continuing to work to secure the long-term economic future of the airport, focused on providing the best possible value for money for our residents. We cannot comment on individual negotiations due to business sensitivities.”

It said last week of the stalled Adynaton deal: “As agreed at the June Cabinet meeting, Cornwall Council has been working with the preferred partner on the future of the Newquay Airport Estate. Whilst negotiations have progressed, and the principal terms of a transaction are agreed, it has not been possible to bring these all together in a way that addresses some of the technical issues of the deal.”

The council’s strategic director for development Phil Mason added: “We remain completely committed to the development of Cornwall Airport Newquay and the surrounding estate and continue to engage and work with our preferred partner under the terms of our Exclusivity Agreement in order to bring the proposed deal to fruition.”

Noah Law, Labour MP for Newquay and St Austell, responded to the concerns over the airport. He told us: “I understand that Cornwall Council has spent at least £1.3 million on consultants for its failed ‘deal’ for Newquay airport. In fact, the true cost will be much higher, when including the huge amount of officers’ and councillors’ time spent on this, and the lost opportunity cost of the investments the council could have been making at this site.

“It would be a tragedy if the council’s exclusivity arrangement, on a deal which was doomed to fail, had stood in the way of more viable and realistic investments which stand to benefit the Cornish taxpayer.”