Company that signed heads of terms deal for Groves ceased to exist six months ago

Earlier this month the entity that Wrexham Council had had hoped would redevelop the old Groves school pulled out of the deal, with it now emerging the company that signed the heads of terms ceased to exist several months earlier.

The Groves building famously was subject to a listing hokey-cokey, with it being listed / challenged / relisted after court action and a final decision by a Welsh Government Minister (who is now First Minister) after the council expressed a desire to knock it down and put one or two new schools on the site.

Wrexham Council had signed heads of terms with an entity with that aim for it to take on the listed building in February last year, with work progressing until recently, before it was put on hold and the pandemic blamed.

Earlier this month Wrexham Council explained to councillors, “This was an exciting project, but the work was stalled during the pandemic because the project relies on overseas travel which has been suspended. The developers have always insisted that the project also relied on its ability to successfully engage with the Welsh Government and the Welsh Health Service – unfortunately, it has not been successful and has therefore decided to pull out of the project.”

Wrexham Council have never officially named the entity ultimately involved, however a council document was briefly public that referred to an ‘agreed heads of terms with ApolloMedi’:

We understand councillors had also been told separately that the heads of terms were agreed with Apollo Medi.

International healthcare company Apollo has a site in Crewe, known as the Apollo Buckingham Health Sciences Campus, which is apparently used to recruit doctors, nurses and other professionals – the believed aim for the Groves site.

A company called “Grove School Education and Training Trust” from Llandudno was incorporated in December 2019 to provide ‘educational support services’. Seven months later an application was made to strike off the company, with the entity finally ceasing to exist in October 2020.

The two directors of the company were Michael Jones and Amanda Weston – the former is an active director of Apollo Buckingham Health Sciences Campus Ltd, and others.

Mr Jones will be more known locally as the former Cheshire East Council Leader,  and has featured more recently in news reports. In June 2020 the BBC reported how Mr Jones said a fraud probe – that was subsequently dropped – was ‘vindictive’ and a ‘politically motivated attack’ by people who were in ‘collusion’ with police, after Cheshire Police looked into “awarding of three council contracts for school fitness classes in 2015 to the company Core Fit, which was run by Mr Jones’ personal physiotherapist Amanda Weston”.

Wrexham.com asked Wrexham Council for clarity over the heads of terms they signed, and if it was in fact with the Grove School Education and Training Trust.

Wrexham Council told us, “The agreement was with the interested company however the Grove School Education and Training Trust was a company set up by them as the delivery vehicle for the project.”

We asked for the council’s understanding of the relationship between the Trust and the eventual ‘interested company’, they explained, “The Trust was set up by the interested company as the delivery vehicle for the project.”

With the Grove School Education and Training Trust applying to cease to be an entity in July 2020 and then formally ceasing to exist in October 2020, we asked the council if they were aware of that, and did a new entity enter an agreement or did the Heads of Terms expire at that point?

The council told us, “The company was closed because of lack of traction with the project but WCBC continued dialog with the company in the hope that it would be able to reignite following the pandemic. This would then allow the company the agree the new delivery vehicle and proceed; however the head of term have since been terminated as agreed with interested company.”

Once a company ceases to be, it is no more. We asked the council with the company bereft of life come 2021 why councillors were told a Heads of Terms existed earlier this year.

The council explained, “The proposal was by the same developer – the vehicle chosen to deliver the project could vary as the project was taken forward. This is not unusual. The relationship was still with the same people, just a different delivery vehicle for the purpose. All would have been subject to due diligence at the appropriate stage anyway.”

Regarding the future of the Groves site, earlier this month the council said, “The Council will now need to decide how best to manage the former Groves School building in accordance with our internal processes.”

As we reported yesterday, North Wales is set for a medical school – more here.