Pressure builds on council to publish failed sale report

Pressure continues to build on Dudley Council to publish a report on the failed sale of Dudley Leisure Centre.

The authority’s Audit Committee asked to see the document, prepared by external auditors Grant Thornton, about the sale of Dudley Leisure Centre in Wellington Road to developer Amarjit Dhanda in March 2024.

The council pulled out of the £1.65m deal in April 2024 prompting questions about why the deal had been made public before being completed.

At the Audit Committee meeting on September 29th, Cllr Karl Denning asked for the report to be made available to the committee for scrutiny and expressing frustration that he had initially been told the report would be available in November 2024.

Cllr Shaukat Ali added: “It is of public interest and therefore the sooner it comes before the public the better.

“There are still a lot of unanswered questions, it would be really good if we could see the report and see what investigations tell us and any learning that can be taken from the findings.”

Committee chairperson, Cllr Bex Collins said: “It was provided to the deputy monitoring officer, we all await this report. I will be seeking further assurance that the report will reach us as soon as it can reasonably be available.”

An email seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service sent in June 2025 from the council’s deputy monitoring officer says the report was received by the council at the end of January 2025 but further work was needed for ‘clarification on broader issues’.

The email goes on to say the work should be concluded by late July ‘when a full report and recommendations will be available’.

However there may be a problem for the committee, a response from Dudley Council to a freedom of information request by the Local Democracy Reporting Service for the report said: “Following a search of our records, we can confirm that the council does not hold a copy of any finalised report prepared by Grant Thornton in relation to this transaction. 

“While it is publicly reported that external auditors were asked to investigate the matter, the council has not received a copy of any such report and therefore cannot confirm its existence or contents.”

In February 2025 Dudley Council announced it had sold the site to Halesowen-based developers Revelan for £1.7m.