Council chief ‘faced sleepless nights’ over council’s £107m gamble on city centre refurb

Gloucester Council leader Richard Cook faced many sleepless nights over the huge risk in undertaking The Forum but is extremely proud to see the redevelopment coming together.

He says if the council had not gone ahead with this major undertaking the city centre would have been left to ruin.

The £107m business hub is a large investment for the council but it has generated a lot of interest and there are many conversations underway with firms who want to occupy the site, he said.

“Without a doubt, it’s a huge risk for the city to have borrowed all that money,” Cllr Cook said.

“There have been times when I’ve had sleepless nights thinking about whether the money would work out. I’ve had to put my faith in Reef and the officers and all those making the calculations who say it is viable.

But it is worrying.

“But, if we hadn’t done anything it would have been left to ruin in the city centre. How would we ever convince people to make investments in the city centre if we weren’t prepared to do it ourselves?

“It would have been an indictment of our sad failure. There is a lot of interest, conversations are underway. I have emails almost everyday asking who they can talk to at the council and who they can discuss with.

“The idea is to get people living back in the city centre. It doesn’t close at 5pm and everybody goes home. The investment is bringing developers to the city.”

By Carmelo Garcia – Local Democracy Reporter

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