Southport's BID Treasurer is an active director of the town's biggest hospitality group
Companies House confirms Geoffrey Wareham is currently a registered active director of Mikhail Hotels and Leisure Holdings Limited. He is simultaneously the Treasurer of Southport BID. No termination has ever been filed. This analysis documents what that means.
Every factual claim in this analysis is sourced from publicly available documents, linked directly below. SIBA does not allege misconduct by any individual. SIBA welcomes corrections or responses from any party named and will publish them in full at damian@siba.digital.
What this article is about
Southport BID is a local business organisation funded by a compulsory charge on town centre businesses. Around 720 businesses pay it. The money is used to promote Southport, run events, and market the town. Businesses have no choice but to pay.
The BID has a Treasurer. His job is to oversee how the money is managed. He sits on the board. He is involved in financial decisions.
That Treasurer also works for the biggest hotel and bar company operating in Southport. His employer owns six venues in the same town centre. All of them pay the same BID levy. All of them benefit from the same BID promotion and events.
On top of his day job, the official Companies House register shows him as a currently active director of that company. Under UK company law, a director has a legal duty to act in the interests of that company. He holds that legal duty to his employer while simultaneously overseeing the finances of a body that spends money in ways that affect that employer.
No paperwork has ever been filed at Companies House to say this directorship has ended.
The detail below is thorough because the evidence needs to be thorough. Every claim links to a primary source. Use the navigation above to skip to the section most relevant to you.
The Southport BID's own website lists its board of directors publicly. Under the name Geoff Wareham, it states his role as Treasurer and his employment as “Commercial Director, Mikhail Hotel and Leisure Group.”
This is not hidden. The BID chose to publish it. What has not been established publicly is what governance steps were taken as a result of this combination of roles, and whether those steps were adequate. This analysis examines the structure and asks the questions it creates.
Three roles. One person.
The following are confirmed by primary public sources.
Geoffrey Richard George Wareham — confirmed roles, April 2026
| Role |
|---|
| Treasurer |
| Commercial Director |
| Active DirectorLive |
What Companies House shows today
The following is taken directly from the People register for Mikhail Hotels and Leisure Holdings Limited (company number 10533763), as it appears on the Companies House website on 8 April 2026.
Companies House — Live Register
Mikhail Hotels and Leisure Holdings Limited · Company 10533763
WAREHAM, Geoffrey Richard George
Role
Director
Status
Active
Appointed
1 January 2022
Date of birth
July 1980
Nationality
English
Resigned
No filing made
Sheldon, Stephen is the only resignation on this register (resigned 1 December 2023, TM01 filed 10 May 2024, five months late). No TM01 has ever been filed for Wareham. Under section 167 of the Companies Act 2006, a company must notify Companies House within 14 days of a director leaving office.
Verify at Companies HouseThe 2024 annual accounts for Mikhail Hotels and Leisure Holdings Limited (filed September 2025, covering the year ended 31 December 2024) do not list Wareham as a director. The Companies House People register has not been updated to reflect this. The two records are in conflict. Until a TM01 is filed, the official legal register shows him as a current director.
Mikhail's footprint in the BID area
Mikhail Hotel and Leisure Group operates the following venues within the Southport BID levy zone. Every one of them is a levy-paying business. Every one of them benefits from the BID promotional activity overseen by the group's own Commercial Director in his capacity as Treasurer.
Mikhail Group venues in the BID zone
- The Bold Hotel, Lord Street
- The Grand, Lord Street
- Lord Street Hotel, Lord Street
- Punch Tarmey's Irish Bar, Lord Street
- Mavericks, Lord Street
- Southport Market Bar
Six venues. Group revenues reported at over £20.7 million annually. The dominant hospitality operator in Southport town centre.
These venues compete directly with independent hotels, bars, and restaurants that also pay BID levy and have no director-level representation on the BID board. The person overseeing the BID's finances holds a legal directorial duty to the group that owns the dominant hospitality portfolio in the same area.
The BID's own awards
Southport BID organises the Your Southport Stars Awards annually. The awards are run by BID staff, funded by BID budget, and promoted across BID channels. They represent one of the BID's most prominent outputs.
The following is the record of Mikhail Group venues across three award cycles, sourced from published results.
Mikhail venues in Your Southport Stars Awards: 2023, 2024, 2025
| Year | Venue | Category | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Southport Market Bar | Pub, Bar or Club of the Year | Won |
| 2024 | Southport Market Bar | Pub, Bar or Club of the Year | Won |
| 2024 | The Bold Hotel | Hotel or Guest House of the Year | Finalist |
| 2025 | The Bold Hotel | Hotel or Guest House of the Year | Won |
| 2025 | Lord Street Hotel | Hotel or Guest House of the Year | Finalist |
2023 and 2024 results are People's Choice awards based on public vote. The 2025 Business Leaders Award for Hotel of the Year was decided by a judging panel whose composition has not been published. The composition of that panel is a governance question, not an accusation.
The 2025 ceremony was held at The Grand, Lord Street, Southport. The Grand is a Mikhail Hotel and Leisure Group venue. It was simultaneously nominated in the Restaurant of the Year category at that same ceremony.
No allegation is made that Wareham influenced the outcome of any award. The question the structure creates is this: what steps were taken to ensure the BID Treasurer had no involvement in awards administration, shortlisting, venue selection, or panel appointments, given that his employer's venues were nominees or winners in every year of the awards' existence?
The full loop: what the structure produces
Each element documented in this analysis operates within a larger structure. When assembled, the picture is a closed loop: the levy funds the infrastructure, the infrastructure promotes the dominant operator, and the dominant operator's director oversees the fund. No single step requires deliberate coordination. The structure produces the outcome automatically.
The diagram below traces how levy money flows into promotion, how that promotion consistently advantages one commercial group, and how that group's director sits at the point of governance where the fund is managed.
The levy
720 businesses pay a compulsory charge
Every business in the BID zone is billed annually. The money goes to the BID board to spend on behalf of the area. No business can opt out. Mikhail Group pays the levy as one of the larger operators on Lord Street.
The board
Wareham oversees how the money is spent
As Treasurer, he oversees BID finances and sits on the board that decides where the levy goes. His day job is Commercial Director of the group that owns six venues in the same area. He is currently listed as an active director of that group's holding company at Companies House.
The collaboration
BID and Visit Southport co-produce the town's seasonal marketing
The BID's CEO confirmed on the public record that the BID works alongside the Visit Southport team on seasonal marketing content. Visit Southport is the publicly-funded tourism platform operated by Sefton Council. The two organisations jointly shape what visitors find when they look for things to do in Southport.
The promotion
The content consistently promotes Mikhail venues
Four seasonal pages reviewed. 47 Mikhail venue mentions. Zero independent restaurants. Zero independent pubs. Zero independent cafes. All outbound links are dofollow and pass full SEO authority to the receiving domains.
The awards
The BID's own awards publicly validate Mikhail
The Stars Awards are run by BID staff, funded by BID budget, and promoted across BID channels. Mikhail's bar won in 2023 and 2024. The panel-judged Hotel of the Year at the 2025 ceremony went to The Bold Hotel. The ceremony itself was held at The Grand, a Mikhail venue.
The visitor
Official channels direct visitors into the Mikhail ecosystem
A visitor following VisitSouthport's seasonal recommendations can stay at a Mikhail hotel, eat at a Mikhail venue, and drink at a Mikhail bar. The publicly-funded infrastructure that is supposed to serve all 720 levy payers consistently routes visitors to the same commercial group.
The cycle
Reinforces at the next ballot
Mikhail's public profile grows through award wins and editorial coverage. Independent competitors remain invisible on the official platform. The BID renews. Wareham's board seat continues. The levy is collected again. The loop continues from step 01.
The Mikhail hospitality ecosystem: Southport town centre
A visitor following VisitSouthport's recommendations can complete their entire stay within this single group's portfolio. Accommodation. Food. Drink. Events.
Sleep
The Bold Hotel
Hotel of Year 2025 (panel)
The Grand
2025 ceremony venue
Lord Street Hotel
2025 finalist
Drink
Southport Market Bar
Bar of Year 2023 and 2024
Punch Tarmey’s
2025 Awards nominee
Mavericks
2025 Awards nominee
Eat and socialise
Southport Market
Street food hall
The Grand restaurant
2025 Restaurant nominee
The Bold restaurant
Lord Street
This is not a criticism of Mikhail Group's investment in Southport or the quality of its venues. It is a description of a market structure in which the publicly-funded promotional infrastructure consistently routes visitors to one commercial group, while the director who oversees that infrastructure's finances is that group's own Commercial Director.
The 720 levy-paying businesses financing this system include Mikhail's direct competitors. Independent hotels competing for the same guests. Independent bars competing for the same customers. They fund the awards that consistently validate their competitor. They fund the seasonal content that never mentions them. They fund the infrastructure that routes visitors to the venues owned by the group whose director oversees the fund.
The accountability gap
There are two specific gaps in public accountability here. Neither is a matter of speculation. Both can be verified.
1. The interest register is not public
The BID's website states: “Southport BID operates a robust policy where any pecuniary and personal interests related to BID activities and decisions of board members or employees are recorded. To view the policy and/or the records, please contact us.”
The register exists. It is not published. The 720 levy-paying businesses who fund the BID have no way to verify what has been declared, what decisions Wareham has participated in, or whether he has recused himself from any matter touching on Mikhail Group interests. They must make a direct request to the BID to find out anything.
2. No TM01 has ever been filed
The one resignation in the Mikhail Holdings filing history, Stephen Sheldon (resigned 1 December 2023), was notified to Companies House via TM01 on 10 May 2024 — five months late. The company is aware of the obligation.
No TM01 has ever been filed for Wareham. The 2024 annual accounts do not list him as a director, but the official Companies House People register currently shows his role as Active. Until a TM01 is filed, the official legal register records him as a current director of Mikhail Holdings while he simultaneously serves as BID Treasurer. The discrepancy between the accounts and the register requires a TM01 to resolve it.
What this means for the other 720 businesses
Every levy-paying business in the BID area contributes to a fund whose Treasurer holds a directorial duty, and an employed commercial role, at the dominant hospitality group in the same area. The businesses that compete directly with Mikhail venues have no director on the board and no visibility into how this arrangement is being managed.
Consider a small independent hotel on Lord Street. It pays between £500 and £2,400 or more per year in BID levy, depending on its rateable value. It competes for guests directly with The Bold Hotel, The Grand, and Lord Street Hotel, all owned by Mikhail. The person overseeing the finances of the body that collects that levy is the Commercial Director and a registered director of the group that owns all three competitor hotels.
Consider an independent bar in the town centre. It competes with Punch Tarmey's, Mavericks, and Southport Market Bar, all Mikhail venues. The BID's Stars Awards, funded by the levy, went to Mikhail's bar in both 2023 and 2024. The 2025 ceremony was hosted by a Mikhail venue.
The problem is not necessarily that harm has been caused. The problem is that the structure makes it impossible to verify that it has not. An unpublished interest register and unminuted board meetings mean that no levy-paying business can satisfy itself that its money is being governed without conflict.
Related analysis
The governance pattern described here sits alongside two other documented structural problems at Southport BID and Visit Southport.
The questions
SIBA cannot answer the following. Southport BID, Sefton Council, and Geoffrey Wareham can.
Has Wareham declared his Mikhail Holdings directorship to the BID board as a formal conflict of interest, separately from his employment as Commercial Director?
At which BID board meetings, if any, has Wareham declared a conflict and recused himself from discussion or vote?
Was Wareham involved in the selection of The Grand as the venue for the 2025 Stars Awards ceremony, where his employer's own hotel won the panel-judged Hotel of the Year?
Who sat on the Business Leaders Award judging panel at the 2025 Stars Awards, and did Wareham have any role in selecting or briefing them?
Why has no TM01 been filed to notify Companies House of any change to Wareham's directorship, despite the 2024 annual accounts not listing him as a director?
What steps has Sefton Council taken in its capacity as BID ballot administrator to satisfy itself that governance conflicts on the BID board are properly managed?
Active FOI request
SIBA has submitted a formal Freedom of Information request to Sefton Council directly relevant to the questions raised here. The response will be published in full, unedited.
10FOI 10: BID Board Members' Declarations of Interest and Outside Directorships
Response due 7 May 2026
SIBA has submitted 14 Freedom of Information requests to Sefton Council in total, covering BID governance, public spending, and tourism platform management. View all FOI requests.
Right of reply
If you are Geoffrey Wareham, a representative of Southport BID, Mikhail Hotel and Leisure Group, or Sefton Council and you wish to respond to any aspect of this analysis, contact damian@siba.digital. Responses will be published in full without editing. The right of reply is open without time limit.
If you are a Southport business with information relevant to BID governance or spending decisions, you can contact SIBA in strict confidence at the same address.