ONE of York’s biggest development companies has been threatened with being struck off at Companies House for failing to submit its accounts.

Skelwith (Leisure) Ltd’s official status with Companies House is listed as “active – proposal to strike off”, although the firm insisted yesterday that accounts have now been submitted, the company is in good financial shape and its existing plans and new projects will go ahead.

The firm is behind a number of major projects, including a much-delayed plan to build a £100 million 303-bedroom five star hotel, Flaxby Country Resort in Flaxby.

Action to strike off Skelwith (Leisure) Ltd was temporarily suspended in December after an objection. Now the company says the accounts have been posted and this should soon be reported by Companies House.

As of yesterday there was no record at Companies House of any accounts having been submitted by Skelwith (Leisure) Ltd.

What did appear was a notice stating that the name of Skelwith Group Ltd would be struck off the register and the company dissolved “unless cause is shown to the contrary, at the expiration of three months” from yesterday’s date.

In an exclusive interview with The Press, Skelwith’s managing director Paul Ellis, 32, a former Young Entrepreneur of the Year in The Press Business Awards, said: “It’s our own fault.

“We should have posted the accounts earlier but the unique way the finance is structured, means that the details are so complex.

“Nobody has ever dealt with the sale of 303 hotel rooms to 303 investors so we have had to get advice from different organisations to get it right.”

Investors, including former England cricket captain Michael Vaughan, have spent £78 million between them buying in advance all 303 rooms planned for the Flaxby hotel scheme, on 283 acres off the A59.

They invested in the project in expectation of getting 50 per cent of the room income once operational Harrogate District Council was prepared to approve the plan but negotiations on new traffic measures were still taking place with North Yorkshire County Council.

Mr Ellis said the company had no debt. It owned the Flaxby site, which was worth £10.5 million, and had just spent £2.4 million on land in Bradford in preparation for a scheme for 700 affordable apartments, he said.

He also said the soon-to-be-opened Raithwaite Hall in Sandsend, in which it had invested nearly £12 million, was likely to be worth £25 million when in operation, and plans for a 120-bedroom, six-star hotel in Paris were being negotiated with a major operator.

He said: “We are actually doing things at a time when not many people are, other than Tesco and Sainsbury’s.”

Three “proposals to strike off” have been made on Mr Ellis’ own company, Skelwith Properties Ltd, and on holding company Skelwith Group Ltd and Skelwith (Leisure) Limited.

All are based in Aspire, the building in Bootham, York, which the organisation developed last year.

JWP Creers’ managing partner, Nigel Clemit, said: “The statutory accounts of Skelwith (Leisure) Ltd were sent to Companies House on Friday, May 27, after detailed development of specific accounting policies.”