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Stand Up For Seaton (SU4S)

Community Action for Seaton's Regeneration Area, 80% owned by Tesco - a floodplain on a World Heritage site bordered by nature reserves, tidal river, the sea and the unspoilt town. SU4S is a state of mind - no members, no structure, no politics. SU4S has objected to 2 planning applications by Tesco, including one for a massive superstore/dot com distribution centre which led to the recent closure on the site of 400 tourist beds with the loss of 150 jobs,a gym and pool - all used by locals.

Monday, January 01, 2007

Liatris

All the information below was found from Companies House or the internet and is in the public domain.

The planning application for the Seaton Regeneration area has been put in by Liatris Holdings Ltd. This company is apparently also known as JJ Portfolio Ltd. This is confirmed in the following East Devon District Council Document – the Local Plan enquiry of Autumn 2005 see:

http://www.eastdevon.gov.uk/plg-lp-timetable_4th_oct.pdf

In this document (pages 15 and 16) the JJ Portfolio/Liatris Holdings Ltd (formerly Liatris) requested that “the affordable housing requirement for [the Harbour Road regeneration area] should be reduced to 75”.

According to Companies House, JJ Portfolio is owned by a company called Silver 2004 Ltd. Between them these two companies own many other companies. One such company is R J Bown Ltd. Until January 2006 R J Bown owned the second largest casino in the country (and the largest provincial casino) at Westcliff on Sea (a small Kent seaside town) but they sold this to Stanley Leisure plc that month for £30 million. The casino’s web site is

http://www.casinocity.com/uk/westcliff-on-sea/westclif/

R J Bown also floated the idea of changing Olympia in London into a mega-casino at one time. R J Bown also apparently had a partnership with MGM (the American movie people) in a joint venture in a casino in Bristol – the Triangle

http://www.trianglecasino.com/

although they also seem to have sold this business to the people who are also the new owners of the Westcliff Casino (perhaps in the £30 million package mentioned above). According to Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westcliff_Casino

the Westcliff on Sea site started as an open air swimming pool and was then a leisure centre. It became a casino in 1987.

The opening hours of the two casinos are shown as 7pm to 6 am in Bristol (except on Saturday/Sunday when it closes at 4 am) and the Westcliff Casino is open from 1 pm – 4 am daily.

This is what R J Bown say about themselves on the home page of their web site:

http://www.rjbown.co.uk/

R J Bown Ltd holds interests in casinos, holiday villages and restaurants.
We are currently expanding our casino operations and are looking for further leisure market opportunities.The Westcliff Casino in Southend is one of the largest provincial casinos in the
UK. Spielers Casino in Southend is a contemporary casino with modern music, lights and plasma screens as well as traditional and electronic gaming. The Triangle Casino in Bristol is a stylish, elegantly designed modern casino, launched in February 2004.

Renowned Holiday Villages Limited is said to operate two holiday villages in Hayling Island and the Isle of Wight. The Beefeater of St Catherine’s Dock is a medieval themed restaurant. The Seashell of Lisson Grove is London’s best known fish and chip restaurant.”

Here, however, it gets a little confusing. Googling “Renowned Holiday Villages” brings up a link to the “2005 group travel awards” which shows that Renowned Holiday Villages were finalists for an award for their Mill Rythe (Hayling Island) holiday village (as was Sand Bay in Weston super Mare, owned by Hollybush Hotels which owns Lyme Bay Holiday Village). So far, so good. But then if you google “Mill Rythe Holiday Village” you find that the web page comes up showing that it is currently being run by Hollybush Hotels.

http://www.hollybushhotels.co.uk/mill_rythe.htm

Google “Renowned Holiday Village and “Isle of Wight

you get a link to:

http://www.iowbreaks.com/accommodation/holidayparks/renowned.php

but the web link on the site is broken.
However, there is an address for the holiday village: Puckpool Hill, and a postcode which equates to the

Harcourt Sands Holiday Village”.

When this is googled one of the posts:

http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews97152.html

which says (in May 2006) the reviewer thinks The Harcourt Sands holiday village is being knocked down

and further googling brings up a new site where this is confirmed:

Pegasus Planning - redevelopment of the site:

http://www.ppg-llp.co.uk/Images/Pegasus%20Planning%20Brochure.pdf

for Tameview Properties (the people who were shown as the owners of the Seaton regeneration area before Liatris). Pegasus Planning is a company that drew up the plans of the site for Liatris and Tameview Properties was the name of the company that owned the Seaton Regeneration area site before Liatris, so presumably there is some sort of connection between them. Pegasus say in their web brochure (above) that with the
Isle of Wight holiday village they are working on "concept proposals for the development of the site to deliver regeneration and renewal in an important coastal location".

And now it gets more complicated! It seems that Tameview Properties is also now owned by the company that bought the casinos - Stanley Leisure:

http://www.ukdata.com/company-listings/Ta-31.html

So, to recap, Tameview Properties – which used to own the Seaton Regeneration site before Liatris (which is now – or was at one time - called JJ Portfolio Ltd according to EDDC) are all linked and are connected to a company called R J Bown Ltd which has (or had)many leisure interests includes or included casinos (though this year (2006) it sold some – or perhaps all - of its casino interests to another company for £30 million - Stanley Leisure which now also owns Tameview Properties. Tameview had been (or is still is) planning to knock down and redevelop a holiday village on the
Isle of Wight once owned by Renowned Holiday Villages (owned, according to the company’s web site, by R J Bown). The other holiday village linked to Renowned Holiday Villages – on Hayling Island – seems to be run by Hollybush Hotels which also leases Lyme Bay Holiday Village from (presumably) Liatris or one of the other companies in this group.

Googling “R J Bown” shows that it also has international interests.

There is probably a very simple explanation for all of the above ....




11 Comments:

At 7:22 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sandra, does that mean that Hollybush Hotels are "effectively" owned by Liatris???

It's a tad confoosing, though, I suppose that is what they want....

 
At 7:40 pm, Blogger Fighting for East Devon's future said...

No, Julia - there appears to be no connection between Liatris and Hollybush other than that Hollybush runs holiday villages on two sites one of which is owned by Liatris (Lyme Bay) and one of which has been owned in the past (or currently) by another company in the same group.

 
At 7:46 pm, Blogger archmaster said...

Even while there's no "direct" connection, it ppears that all these companies and shells are all well versed in working with/for each other to achieve their own ends.

That's their ends, not mine, yours, Seaton's or EDDC's.

Funny their wasn't room for a casino...

 
At 9:11 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said...

It may also be that these businesses naturally cross paths quite logically being in the redevelopment of large regeneration areas that often turn out to be holiday parks that have fallen from grace.

nonetheless, some interesting results from semple sleuthing Inc. You might also find that Barratts are a longterm customer of the developers as well so figure that into your algorithm... :)

 
At 9:22 pm, Blogger Fighting for East Devon's future said...

Yep, businesses naturally cross paths all the time....

I'm so glad we can rely on EDDC to sort this out for us.

 
At 9:50 pm, Blogger archmaster said...

So, in the circumstancial world we have Silver who own JJ who were once Liatris, they own the land that Hollybush run the camp on.
RJBown are also owned by Silver and sold a casino to Stanley, who also bought Tameview in June.
A director of Silver is/has/was been on the boards of RJBown, JJ, Silver and Renowned HV (the one thats elsewhere but in the same boat)
Tameview, before being bought, shared the same HQ as Silver and JJ.

I'm sure there's more to this can o'worms than meets the eye, but I think that's enough for one night;-)

 
At 2:09 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said...

The "Russian" dolls says it all really (they are just about the only people not to figure but I suppose there is still time).

EDDC protecting our interests? Since when?

 
At 8:24 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Excellent research and what a gruesome bunch of predators.

How interesting that only last month EDDC abandoned its intention to declare East Devon a casino-free zone. Speaking in support of casinos one of the councillors is reported to have been converted to the cause by what he had seen in Bristol.

Is there a Plan B to create an Atlantic City in Seaton?

 
At 9:12 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said...

All very confusing. Which of these companies does Terry Dinham work for?

What are his interests in this project and where else has he been involved with development projects? Have any been completed?

 
At 9:56 am, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Another thought occurs. If the real plan is to operate a casino, the second retail store could be the Trojan Horse. The case for a second store has never been convincing. Imagine that despite energetic marketing no tenant can be found but interest has been expressed by a casino operator then EDDC would be free to give their approval.

 
At 11:19 am, Blogger Fighting for East Devon's future said...

You could well be right there.

Is it just me or would there be something really, really, really tacky about a casino between a supermarket and a petrol station! An illustration of the 21st century perhaps .....

UNLESS of course, it is a casino next to an amusement arcade and there is no supermarket and no DIY store!!!!!

 

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