Play all audios:
Council bosses have made a U-turn on revealing costs of Nuneaton's Hampton by Hilton hotel. Back in April, CoventryLive submitted a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to the Town Hall
to ask for the six months costs of the hotel. The landmark hotel officially opened in September last year and, while it is run by the hotel chain, it is owned by the council and was paid
for with public money. At the time of the first FOI, the council responded and said that the information was going to be published in a council scrutiny report in June. The scrutiny meeting
will be held on June 12. But the papers are in the 'confidential section', which means that the press and public do not have access to them and could not remain in the meeting when
they are discussed. READ MORE: DATE HMO PLANS FOR NUNEATON POST OFFICE BRANCH SET TO BE DECIDED AS CHANGE MADE READ MORE: SIGNIFICANT PIECE OF NUNEATON HISTORY DISCOVERED IN GARAGE AFTER
TEN YEARS CoventryLive submitted another FOI, asking the council for access to the papers. This followed the initial FOI response which said that they would be available. But our request has
been refused. It means that the figures can only be seen by members of the scrutiny panel. We asked the council to explain the U-turn and, in a statement, a spokesperson said: "At the
time of the Freedom Of Information request we had planned in good faith to release the information within the request as part of the report for the scrutiny panel which was planned for
publication in June 2025, after further consideration, we believe that the release of the figures are commercially sensitive and would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of any
legal person (including the public authority holding it), therefore we are engaging exemption section 43(2) of the Freedom Of Information Act. “