MONMOUTHSHIRE County council has said that lessons have been learnt after an “ambitious” programme of events, including a Little Mix concert at Caldicot Castle, led to a loss for the authority.

The in-house service incurred losses in each of the last three years, including a £140,000 overspend in 2017.

Following an unfavourable audit, the council commissioned an independent review into the events and special projects team.

Cath Fallon, head of enterprise, told the economy and development select committee that the review highlighted positives and previous pitfalls.

Ms Fallon said the Little Mix concert at Caldicot Castle last July, which attracted 15,000 fans, promoted “quite a frenzy” on social media, boosted the local economy and offered volunteering opportunities to the community.

But the review says problems arising from last year’s events at the venue stemmed from a “large increase” in the scale of the shows, as well as a “lack of experience”.

“There was a loss, which was regrettable, however it was an ambitious programme,” said Ms Fallon on Thursday. “Part of the reason for the overspend was the increased security as a result of what had happened at Manchester [Arena] prior to the event.

“What we’ve learnt now is to put those lessons in place going forward. Perhaps it would be one large scale event with smaller events, as opposed to trying to run too many at the same time.”

Events will now share a “very close relationship” with the finance department to follow internal procedure, according to Ms Fallon.

Tim Lewis, of the events team, said that the council aimed to improve infrastructure at venues across Monmouthshire.

“[Caldicot Castle] has grown from a very small event within the internal walls four years ago to 15,000 people last year,” he added.

“That’s what we’d like to do around the county – not bring masses but prepare our sites and get them in the best possible place to not only maximise income but to also offer them as spaces for the community.”

An events promoter with 15 years’ experience of working with local authorities carried out the review and suggested seven ways in which events could be run in Monmouthshire.

Options included the hiring of a reputable promoter to solely run events, or work in partnership with the council.

But the committee heard that a hybrid model, in which the authority could cherry-pick the best parts of each of the suggestions, is preferred.

A report says the council could use its ‘financial viability’ template to assess each commercial venture to see if it will make a profit or a loss.

The proposals also include supporting the events service, which was previously operated without council funding, through providing an annual budget of £32,000 from the council’s ‘underutilised’ redundancy provision.

Conservative councillor Mat Feakins welcomed the hybrid approach, saying: “Risk can come in many forms – reputational, financial, health and safety, and risk of doing nothing. “If there’s an area of risk that hasn’t been considered, as has been the case in the past, then it catches us all out.”

Labour councillor Alan Davies agreed but added: “We need to be realistic here, the overspend is considerable so it’s going to take time to get that back under control.

“I do think there’s major potential in a lot of our sites, particularly Caldicot Castle, potential which has never really come to fruition. We need to start thinking outside the box.”

The proposals will go before cabinet on July 25.