Coronavirus: i360 reopening date revealed

Since the Brighton seafront tower opened in 2016 its board has agreed to delay £3.7 million in loan repayments to Brighton and Hove City Council. The attraction was built with a £36 million Government loan through the city council.

But on Wednesday councillors will vote on whether to defer a further £3.1 million in repayments to keep the i360 financially viable.

It has been closed since March 19 but is set to reopen on July 4 with safety measures in place, including temperature checks at the door.

“It remains the case the i360 has fixed costs it cannot avoid and no source of income,” a committee report read.

“In the event of lockdown continuing through the summer they would obviously face a cash shortfall.

The troubled attraction has been starved on income since it closed in March

“If the lockdown were to continue, or recovery were to be slower than expected, then the i360 would potentially need access to further cashflow support to remain solvent.”

The report recommends the council postpone two planned £1.49 million repayments in June and December this year.

It also suggested deferring another £150,000 which the board did not pay last year.

The i360 was due to pay the city council £612,000 last December but only paid £462,000. This was because a “large deposit” it was due to receive from payment processor World Pay took longer than expected to arrive.

By the time the attraction received the payment in February it said it could not pay it to the city council because of financial troubles that month.

The i360 will reopen with health and safety measures in place. Photo: Jono Truluck-Thyer

Visitor numbers in February were half the number expected, a trend blamed on the coronavirus outbreak in the city that month and the impact of storms Ciara and Dennis.

Talks between the city council and i360 to restructure the £36 million loan have been halted due to the coronavirus pandemic.

It now owes a total of £38.9 million, including interest.

But council officers believe it would be cheaper to “make concessions” to keep the attraction afloat rather than taking control of it if it goes under.

The i360 hopes to claw back some earnings this year by opening on July 4, the day the Government plans to reopen England’s tourism sector.

The attraction typically makes 30 per cent of its income from July and August alone.

The i360 hopes to claw back some income in the busy summer months

But it has introduced vigorous health measures to ensure it can open safely.

Visitors will have their temperatures checked before entering to ensure suspected coronavirus cases do not use the ride.

And the pod’s air conditioning system has been retuned to bring in a continuous supply of fresh air. Air from inside the pod will be ejected outside.

The pod will also be cleaned between each "flight", while hand sanitiser stations and social distancing markers have been put in place.

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