Work on upgrades to a café and bar at Horseshoe Bay has yet to start — almost two years after the company was granted a concession to run the facility said work would begin.

Horseshoe Bay Live was awarded a five-year lease on the building from April 2021, beating off bids from 15 competitors.

Unveiling the new operator in November 2020, David Burch, the Minister of Public Works, said that HPL planned on pumping $3.8 million into the facility. Colonel Burch said that work was expected to begin in the autumn of 2021 and be completed in time for the start of the 2022 tourism season.

The company suffered a setback in December 2021 when proposals for the revamp were rejected by the Development Applications Board.

But in April 2022, HBL insisted that the company was still pushing forward with the upgrades.

Blaming the Covid-19 pandemic for delays, Delton Ebbin said: “We’ve done everything that we’ve had to do for things to go ahead. Now we’re just waiting on the Government to get back to us; it’s all in the Government’s hands. Plans have been submitted, we’re just waiting.”

According to a government spokesman this week, the company has yet to submit revised drawings to the Department of Planning.

The spokesman said: “The Horseshoe Bay concession, like all our commercial tenants, has suffered setbacks during the Covid pandemic and we are certainly sympathetic to these unavoidable challenges.

“It should be noted that Horseshoe Bay Live’s first submission to Planning was rejected and the team went back to the drawing board to modify those plans. Horseshoe Bay Live are working to submit the revised plans.”

Last week Mr Ebbin declined to answer questions about the development when approached by a Royal Gazette reporter.

But the ministry spokesman said that Colonel Burch still supported the initiative after a meeting with HBL last month.

The spokesman said: “The minister and ministry team met with the principals of Horseshoe Bay Live on March 22 to be updated on their plans for this season as well as their development plans.

“This continues to be a project that the Ministry of Public Works supports because such endeavours help to expand economic growth and, more specifically, add value to our tourism product.”