Dashwood: Fracking company makes friends with £10,000 gift to Lancashire theatre

“From time to time, we have decided to make appropriate payments to community projects,” a Cuadrilla spokesman tells Dashwood.

Other beneficiaries include Blackpool and The Fylde College, which received £24,000 jointly from Cuadrilla and fellow energy major Centrica to fund a two-year science competition.

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With maths like this, it’s no wonder the Co-op reported a £2.5bn loss.

The chaotic company became a laughing stock (again) on the eve of the Bank Holiday weekend, when it announced its food deals with an ad that said: “Because this weekend’s a third longer.”

It’s a margin of error that even Paul “Crystal Methodist” Flowers (pictured), the former chairman who mis-stated the Co-op Bank’s balance sheet by £44bn, would be ashamed of.

Still, at least the Co-op gave it 110pc for attempted humour in its arithmetic mea culpa. “We must be ready for our 50pc longer weekend!” said the ‘tired and emotional’ mutual.

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Lloyds, Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland were left with a joint bill for £112.4m when the party stopped at the UK’s largest nightclubs chain, Luminar Group, in 2011.

But at least administrator EY has more to celebrate.

The Big Four firm’s latest administrator’s “progress report” on Luminar, since rescued by former director Peter Marks, shows it has billed almost £6m for its work from October 2011 to January this year – plus £87,000 of expenses.

Luminar’s banking creditors, on the other hand, are expected to experience a “significant shortfall”.

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harriet.dennys@telegraph.co.uk

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