LEISURE CENTRE UPGRADE COMES IN £0.5M OVER BUDGET
AN UPGRADE at Newtownabbey's flagship leisure centre has come in almost half a million pounds over budget.
Work on a new new fitness suite, external cladding and the replacement of air handling and electrics at the Valley Leisure Centre was expected to cost the ratepayer 3,325,774.
However, additional work throughout the course of the project drove costs, including fees, up to 3,803,144.
At Monday's Development Committee meeting, Alliance councillor Billy Webb said the overspend was "unacceptable". "Some of this work should have been identified in advance," he told the committee. "I think it's a poor situation to find the contract was almost half a million out on the works that needed to be done."
The committee's chairman, Alderman Paul Girvan, said the council should "look at a major investigation into how this happened". "Somebody has to be answerable for this," he claimed.
Among the additional costs incurred during the upgrade was the safe removal of asbestos, costing 72,000. A report tabled at the meeting stated: 'Shortly after the commencement of work, asbestos was found in several areas of the building where refurbishment was to take place. This had to be removed prior to work continuing, resulting in not only increased cost but also a delay to the contract.'
Former Mayor, Lynn Frazer, said: "The fundamental issue here is the asbestos. Who is responsible for identifying that the asbestos is there?" Councillor Frazer said it should have been identified when the council previously paid a "substantial amount of money" to have all its buildings checked for asbestos.
26,000 was also spent on replacing ductwork, and seating around the pool area of the centre was found to be "corroded and damaged".
As work progressed, the report stated, 'it became necessary to alter and provide additional services, particularly to the fitness suite, including CCTV and lighting. This resulted in an extra cost of 66,000.'
These and other issues resulted in a delay to the contract of around 11 weeks. 'This resulted in an additional cost of 155,00 to the contract covering the contractor's expenses, overheads and costs of unproductive labour time.'
Members of the committee approved a recommendation that a supplementary loan sanction be made to the Department of Environment for 477,370 with some adding that they had no other choice but to do so.
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Newtownabbey
Tuesday 22 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 11 C to 20 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: South east
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 10 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: South east
