Dudley Council watchdog to probe Brookes bar failings
Dudley Council’s watchdog committee will investigate decisions around the failed Brookes Bar but the hearing will be behind closed doors.
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The authority’s Audit and Standards Committee meeting on October 14 will sit in private session to hear a detailed presentation of financial information about the bar, which closed in August 2024.
The bar and bistro in Dudley Town Hall was intended to become a key part of Dudley’s nightlife but instead made huge losses.
Audit and Standards Committee chairman, Cllr Karl Denning, said: “We will be looking at the business plan, the finances and the decision making process.
“It is not a head hunting exercise but something we have got to learn lessons from.”
The doomed project was sparked by a report to the council’s Corporate Board in June 2017 which identified a lack of kitchen facilities at Dudley Town Hall and sought support for a more detailed study.
In September 2017 a three leaders meeting backed a report on the future of the former Dudley museum and by March 2019 a final business plan was being circulated.
At the same time a council Place Scrutiny Committee working group recommended approval of the plan, despite saying it required further work and also allocating £1.5m to redevelopment of the listed town hall building.
By June of the same year an informal meeting of the council’s cabinet had approved the project which was to be funded with reserves, savings due to reduced staffing costs and £1.35m from the disposal of assets including training facilities at the museum site.
A full cabinet report outlining the funding plan said: “Detailed income and expenditure monitoring will be carried out to ensure that these surpluses can be achieved.”
Construction on the new Brookes Bar and Bistro started in October 2021 and by September 2022 the venue was open to the public.
The bar however racked up eye-watering losses of £387,700 in its first 18 months and the council, by now in the middle of a financial crisis and facing the possibility of becoming effectively bankrupt, had to take drastic action.
Despite spending £50,000 on a private consultant in a last-gasp bid to keep the bar open, the decision was made to close the bar in August 2024 to stem losses.
