Bristol City Council has again declined to disclose whether the local authority-owned Bottle Yard Studios is profitable for taxpayers, and if so, by how much.
It comes as the future and governance of the largest film and TV studios in the South West is under renewed scrutiny.
This month, the city council rejected a Freedom of Information request from investigative journalist and council transparency advocate Andrew Lynch. He requested the council release even the most basic financial figures related to the operations of the Bottle Yard.
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The Hengrove-based studios, particularly their running costs and future, have been in the spotlight over the past year.
The previous Labour administration initiated a review to determine whether the studios should be sold, primarily because it is believed that the facility will need multi-million pound investment over the next few years to maintain its status as a popular and frequently used film studio.
The new Green Party -led administration continued with plans to sell the studios but announced earlier this year that a deal with a potential buyer had fallen through. As a result, the council will be revisiting the future of the studios.
Councillors were informed the process of marketing the Bottle Yard for sale and the ultimately unsuccessful negotiations cost taxpayers £430,000, reports Bristol Live.
The Bottle Yard, one of Bristol's significant cultural triumphs, is a council-owned facility situated in a former bottle factory. It has served as the location for a vast array of major TV and film productions, bolstering Bristol's reputation as one of the country's leading cities for the film and TV industry.
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However, the council has not disclosed any financial data regarding the studios' operating costs, the income it receives from production companies, or the amount of taxpayers' money invested in recent years.
During a council meeting earlier this year discussing the Bottle Yard's future, a senior council officer informed councillors that the Bottle Yard was indeed profitable for the council. However, no further information has been made public.
Previous requests to view the Bottle Yard accounts from councillors, journalists, and members of the public have been dismissed by the city council on the grounds of commercial sensitivity - the belief that disclosing the figures would provide rival film studios or production companies with too much information.
Following the collapse of a sale earlier this autumn and reports of a need for substantial new investment, Mr Lynch submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for access to the accounts. He argued that if the council executive officer could inform councillors that the studios were profitable, then accounts must exist.
This week, the city council rejected Mr Lynch's request, stating that gathering such information would require more than 18 hours of officer time, meaning the council was not obliged to comply.
"People have been asking about the state of the Bottle Yard Studios' finances for years," said Mr Lynch. "How can we run these brilliant, world-class studios and not know if they make or lose money?
"There's also a sense that senior council officers don't think the public have a right to know how they run the council. In recent years we have had the Bristol Energy shock and the Beacon shock, with council taxpayers left with huge bills for dozens of millions of pounds, while our politicians and, occasionally, council officers have moved onwards and upwards," he told Bristol Live.
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"One senior officer, the director of economy of place, reportedly said the studios were profitable. If he has seen the numbers, why can't we? And the studios were prepared for sale.
"Do officers expect us to believe that no financial statements were prepared for potential buyers? No wonder they blew £430,000 on a failed process," he added.
"I can't be sure who is pulling the strings here, but they need to remember that it's our council funded by our council taxes. The council does not exist for the benefit of anyone but the citizens of Bristol," he said.
Bristol Live posed a series of queries to Bristol City Council regarding the Bottle Yard, its financial situation, and the refusal of Mr Lynch's request on the basis that it would require too much time for an officer to compile the accounts.
The council was questioned about the existence of the accounts, the profitability of the studios, the reason for not publishing the accounts, the extensive amount of officer time required to compile the accounts, and why the duration was cited as a reason, rather than previous claims of commercial sensitivity.
Rather than directly addressing the questions, a spokesperson from City Hall said: "The Bottle Yard Studios is a commercial TV and film studios that successfully operates in a highly competitive market and is one of the main driving forces behind our region's internationally renowned creative sector.
"As a commercial operation, detailed financial records are considered commercially sensitive as disclosure of such detail could impact the studio's ability to operate in this market and hinder our ability to continue to bring major productions into Bristol and the wider region. As a council service, the studios financial operations form part of the council's annual statement of accounts, with the latest draft publication available on our website," she added.