DIGITAL City looks likely to be closed down as a company.

A notice was issued by Companies House, the register of UK firms, that unless a good reason can be offered, it should be struck off within three months.

The notice, issued on August 16, reads: “Unless cause is shown to the contrary, at the expiration of three months from the above date, the name of Digital City (UK) Limited will be struck off the register and the company dissolved.”

The firm, based at the David Murray John Tower, was headed by now-bankrupt business figure Rikki Hunt until early this year. It has been embroiled in controversy since its plans to deliver free wi-fi internet coverage for the whole town began floundering last year.

The company, which was created on September 21, 2009, as DM 56 LIMITED, has never filed accounts to Companies House, and the move to dissolve it is because it is three months past the deadline for filing them.

Striking off is different from a normal liquidation.

It means the Government is effectively shutting the company down for not complying with its rules, whereas with liquidation the directors of the company or a creditor typically demand that the firm is dissolved, and then its assets are parcelled out.

In this case, all the assets of Digital City would become property of the government.

It can actually get back in the Government’s good books by filing the outstanding accounts, but time is ticking for it to do so.

Meanwhile, the future of the council-backed wi-fi scheme is in the hands of the council and a mystery investor, who is meant to be swooping in with fresh investment for the scheme.

But nothing has yet been revealed about the new arrangements or indeed, who the investor is.