Douglas Borough Council wishes to set the record straight after the head of Bushy’s brewery Martin Brunnschweiler publicly expressed concerns over the future of the Bushy’s TT beer tent in light of what he deemed to be a lack of clarity over when a tendering process to operate the attraction from 2018 onwards might begin.

For the past 20 years the tent has occupied the Council-owned Bottleneck car park during the TT festival, for the past five years under a tender agreement between the Council and Bushy’s which, together with the brewery’s licence to operate the tent, comes to an end at the conclusion of the 2017 TT.

Earlier this year the Council notified Mr Brunnschweiler that it would be inviting tenders to operate the site, and advised him recently that invitations to tender would be going out this week.

Council Leader Councillor David Christian MBE JP said: ‘As a responsible local authority Douglas has an obligation to its ratepayers to secure value for money. It is for this reason that the Council resolved to go out to tender once more regarding the use of the Bottleneck car park as a TT entertainment venue.

‘While we recognise that Mr Brunnschweiler accepts there is to be a tendering process we are disappointed that he chose to express his concerns and voice what he terms his “frustration” over the timescale so publicly, especially given the cordial working relationship we have enjoyed with him and Bushy’s over many years. It is precisely because of that long-standing amicable arrangement that the Council chose to keep Mr Brunnschweiler fully informed of its intentions at every stage and will continue to do so.’

In closing Councillor Christian said: ‘Over the past few days I have read many ill-informed comments on social media about this matter to which I have been asked to respond. Let me make it quite clear: I do not intend to enter into an online debate. I believe in keeping to the facts rather than fuelling fiction.’