Council apologises as water play area finally opens

04/02/11

Lambeth Council chiefs have apologised for the fiasco surrounding the opening of the £240,000 water play area in Norwood Park.

At a meeting on Monday one park user said the community had "lost its trust" in the council particularly over the lack of communication during the delays in opening the play area and this trust would need to be rebuilt.

Stuart Dixon, head of Children And Young Peoples Services, was drafted in as the council's chief apologist which was perhaps a shame given he only started work at the council in November so had no involvement in the contract,or the monitoring of it.

He wasn't even at the council when the play area was meant to open at the July Norwood Expo in the park but closed the same day as it was not finished or RoSPRA checked.

Excuses ranged from a high demand in wood to the real reason the contractor had run in to financial difficulties even though the council said it had obtained banking reference prior to appointment of the contractor.

There was however no clear reason as to what the council had been doing prior to July and up to October - when those difficulties finally emerged - to monitor the contractors progress.

Mr Dixon, disputed that the council hadn't been tough enough and had issued a notice to determine order. However, he said if the council had gone ahead and terminated the contract the process of finding a replacement contractor would have set the project back even further and the play area would still probably not be finished.

Ironically the play area opened officially the weekend before the meeting to probe the reason for the delays.

Mr Dixon did a very good job of representing the contractor who wasn't present saying they were: "very sorry, embarrassed and guilt ridden" though not so much so that they or the architects could be bothered to turn up to the meeting to face the community and explain.

It took months and months and months to complete the play area which costs as much as a two bedroom house and took longer than it would to build a house from scratch.

There will be no compensation for the community. There is a clause in the contract which ends in a year's time when the guarantee runs out.

This includes payments for delays in finishing the contract but it was made clear that if there is any money to come it won't be coming to the park.

At least though the play area is now open and getting a lot of use from local children and hopefully in May the water will be switched on and it will really become a water play area.