Tolent collapse holds up car park at Berwick leisure site

Tolent plc, headquartered in Gateshead, and five of its subsidiaries appointed administrators from Interpath Advisory on Monday, making 313 employees redundant.

It had already completed work on the new buildings for the Berwick Sports and Leisure Centre in Tweedmouth – the final element being the new sports hall in November.

However, the new car parking area and landscaping, plus a play park, was still to be done and residents spotted on Tuesday that the site where these works were taking place is currently closed.

Mark Warnes, chief executive of Active Northumberland, said back in November that “parking is still a bit tight at times” until the new car park would be ready and now there is uncertainty over when it will be completed.

A Northumberland County Council spokesperson said: “We have received formal notification that Tolent has gone into administration and extend our sympathies to all the staff involved.

“Tolent has completed the construction of the new Berwick Leisure Centre, which has been operational for a year.

“The company has been working on the final phase of work at the site at Berwick. This involves the construction of a new car park, a play park and landscaping. The demolition of the old Swan Centre is complete.

“We will be working with the administrators, the current subcontractors and our professional advisors to appoint a new contractor to complete the project.

“While it is inevitable that some time will be lost, we will work hard to keep this to a minimum and will advise of new completion dates once contractors have been appointed.”

As for Tolent plc, administrators have retained 91 people at the firm while they explore a sale of the company or its assets.

James Lumb, managing director at Interpath Advisory and joint administrator, said: “Our priority in the coming days is to work with key stakeholders to assess options for each of the companies.

“We will also be providing support to those employees who have been impacted by redundancy, including providing them with the guidance and information that they need to be able to make claims from the Redundancy Payments Office.”