COUNCIL tax payers were owed hundreds of thousands of pounds when a manufacturer at Bournemouth Airport went into administration, administrators' documents suggest.

However, BCP Council says it has no record of being owed the £332,000 which administrators believed was due to the former Christchurch Borough Council from Aim Altitude.

Christchurch council is listed as a creditor in a report by administrators, as is Eastleigh Borough Council, which owns the factory's site next to Bournemouth Airport.

Aim Altitude (UK) Ltd, which makes interiors for commercial aircraft, went into administration in June, along with parent company Aim Altitude Ltd.

Most of the companies’ assets were sold straight away to another arm of their Chinese owner, AVIC, for £2million.

A report by administrators at Grant Thornton said Aim Altitude (UK) owed £6.7m to unsecured creditors when administrators were appointed.

The former Christchurch Borough Council was owed £332,163, the report said.

Eastleigh Borough Council, which bought the freehold of the Aim Altitude factory site at Bournemouth Airport for £18.7m in 2017, was listed as being owed £288,000.

It is not clear how much money will be available to unsecured creditors, because parent company Aim Altitude Ltd is expected to make a claim against its subsidiary Aim Altitude (UK) Ltd for intercompany loans and management charges.

There could also be “potentially significant breach of contract claims” which could run into tens of millions of pounds.

Aim Altitude Ltd also owed £2.7m to unsecured creditors, but its own parent business – AVIC Cabin Systems Co – was expected to make a claim against it and to be its largest unsecured creditor, having funded the group through £170m in loan notes.

All 383 jobs at the companies were saved when most of their assets were sold to AVIC Cabin Systems (UK) Lt, another business owned by AVIC Cabin Systems Co.

The freehold of Aim Altitude’s other factory site in Cambridge was not part of the deal and will be marketed by administrators to raise money for creditors.

A BCP Council spokesperson said: “Our records show that on the date that Aim Altitude went into administration no business rates were owed to the former Christchurch Borough Council.”

An Eastleigh Borough Council spokesperson said “The business and assets of our tenant have been sold to another company who propose to continue the business operations of the previous tenant.

“The new tenant currently occupies the premises and discussions are under way concerning their longer-term occupation. We are also currently working with the insolvency service/administrators and/or pursuing the company to ensure that a maximum amount of the debt owed to the council is recovered.

“This is the type of risk that any prudent landlord builds into the management of their commercial property portfolio – our portfolio generates in excess of £10m in revenue a year – and, as such, its potential impact on council finances is built into our financial planning.”