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£2,000,000 to get some coffee and cake

Let's hope it has a sprinkler system!......."Following the fire damage to the Gunnersbury Park Café building in May 2020, the Council has been involved in overseeing the rebuilding works for the Café. The original contractor started on site in May 2022. However, the building contract was terminated in May 2023, because the contractor went into a voluntary administration arrangement.An alternative contractor has now been appointed, having been procured in conjunction with the Procurement Team in accordance with the Council’s Procurement Procedures.The insurers agreed to this approach. The Council’s insurers have agreed to fund additional costs of £198,824 to cover the costs of reprocuring the contract and completing the works.As part of the One Hounslow PPM (Project and Programme Management) Approach, a change control request was considered at Capital Strategy Board where the recommendation to approve an addition of £198,824 to the 2023/24 approved general fund Capital Programme through a Chief Officer Decision was agreed.The original budget of £1,741,931 has been funded as follows: £1,366,931 by the Council’s insurers £250,000 by the Council for additional works (as approved via COD in May 2022) An excess of £125,000 by Hounslow CouncilThe additional funding of £198,824 required to bring the total budget to £1,940,755 will be funded by the Council’s insurers.The works are due to be completed by the end of April 2024, when the café will be handed back to the Gunnersbury Park Trust, custodians of the café and park. The Trust will make arrangements for the café to be fitted out by the chosen supplier."The project would not be able to be completed if the additional budget is not approved."

Nick Jenkins ● 912d2 Comments ● 911d

Grove Park fine value tops £26 million

The following article claims this is the total amount of fines issued for the Grove Park restrictions.https://www.msn.com/en-za/news/world/council-accused-of-targeting-school-run-parents-after-issuing-26m-in-ltn-fines/ar-BB1jdIH3I found the angle taken in this report quite perplexing. The school in the area is a secondary school and relatively few parents drive their children to school and those that do are aware of the restriction.Generally my impression is that people living in the area, now that exemptions have been widened, are only mildly put out by the restrictions and the occasional annoyance is off set by the reduced traffic. However, the figure in this article that caused my jaw to drop was the number of cases in which bailiffs had been used. It totals 13,000 and the council had to pause sending out bailiffs because they didn't have the capacity to handle the volume.This represents 13,000 cases of individual misery and people whose lives have got into such a state that they didn't have the means to pay a £130 fine. Now they have burly men knocking on their doors to take away their possessions. For Cllr Dunne to suggest this is okay because 88% of people fined aren't locals shows a loss of perspective as the numbers suggest at least 1,000 local people have had the bailiffs set on them. It is very probable that we aren't hearing much about this despite the huge scale because they are ashamed of what has happened to them.

Diane Brown ● 929d110 Comments ● 911d