A catalogue of missed opportunities left a women’s college with a £443,000 bill for a pop concert supposed to raise funds, in part, for vital building work, the Comet can reveal.

In December we revealed Hillcroft College sold 3,000 of 14,000 tickets for its Summer Live concert at Sandown Park.

The Surbiton-based charity aimed to raise £200,000 to fix a leaking roof and improve disabled access.

Instead, it had to use reserves that could have been used for property purposes to help write off the loss.

The college did not return requests for information for three months, but a series of documents released under the Freedom of Information Act this week reveal:

- Efforts to find sponsors failed because the concert was approved four months in advance

- The college did not take out insurance to cover poor ticket sales

- A PR company was hired in June or July following flagging sales

- For three months, one agency was used to sell tickets.

A London event organiser, who asked not to be named, said most people taking on a similar event would have a full year’s run in time or would have done it before.

However, in a statement the college said: “A thorough process was undertaken to decide whether to have the concert, including risk assessment by independent experts and specialist legal advice on contracts for artists and other parties involved in the event.”

Hillcroft College said it had a balanced budget for 2010-11, was not near bankruptcy and its core activities had not been jeopardised by the concert.

The April 29 committee meeting, at which funding for the concert was unanimously approved, heard the 50 per cent break-even point for ticket sales “should be easily achievable and a 60-70 per cent sales rate [is] expected”.

Just a month before the concert took place, a committee heard only 540 tickets had been sold.

Although all attendees raised concerns a reinvestigation of the contracts showed the college was already committed.

Ticket sales improved after three extra ticketing companies were engaged in late July – “this week” according to a report on July 28, but “early June” according to a report in November. Ultimately, only a 21 per cent sales rate was achieved.

A November 23 report blamed the event’s failure on factors mainly outside the college’s control, including changing market conditions that affected events with lack of ticket sales.

After reviewing the event on November 25, the finance and general purposes committee agreed to investigate whether any action could be taken against advisers and others involved in the event.

It concluded the event was “too large for Hillcroft to engage on its own”.

Last week, principal June Ireton told staff she was leaving the college, but sources said this was not connected to the concert.

A Charity Commission spokesman said it had provided the charity’s trustees with regulatory advice and guidance regarding fundraising and management of its funds.

Edward Davey MP, who is a patron of the college but was not involved in the concert, said: “I am meeting Hillcroft shortly to discuss this issue as part of my follow-up to the Surrey Comet’s Freedom of Information request.”