While the Council aggressively pursues residents for Council Tax arrears, a different standard was applied to a former colleague. Investigative reporting by the LDRS revealed that former Conservative Councillor Alan Deville was allowed to accumulate rent arrears on the Cowley Meeting Hall.
Mr Deville leased the hall from the Council for £5,655 a year, but sublet it to the popular Theo’s Café for £18,000 a year-despite the lease explicitly forbidding subletting. Crucially, while he was collecting rent from the café, he was failing to pay the Council. Instead of reclaiming the money, the Cabinet voted in private (Part 2) to write off the debt, claiming it wasn’t “cost-effective” to pursue.
The Cabinet decided to sell the building in December, and it was only after the press exposed this arrangement that the Council hurriedly withdrew the property from sale. The required consultation to “dispose” of the land is still open, but only to those people who have been able to find it.
As we have seen in the February 2026 Audit papers published today, the Council’s internal auditors have already flagged “Limited Assurance” in documentation security and internal controls—this case appears to be a textbook example of why those warnings of systemic failure must be taken seriously.
Read more of our February 2026 series
- Introduction: Mistakes, misjudgements, or systemic breakdown?
- 1. The £150m Bailout: “Accounting Adjustments” vs Reality
- 2. The Culture of “Late”: From Accounts to Budgets
- 3. The “Theo’s Café” Scandal: Claims of cronyism and confirmed secrecy
- 4. The Silent Treatment: 12 Weeks and Counting
- 5. Putting Residents First? Not always
- 6. An addiction to “Special Urgency” – for secrecy or last minute work?
- 7. The secret £3.3m planning system
- 8. Decision-Making Based on Flawed Data
- 9. Are they taking heed of the “Section 24” warnings?
- Summary: The Case for Concern – is something broken at our Civic Centre?
- What Now? What do you think? You have until Wednesday to tell the Council
Comments are closed.