Author: Sal
Ventnor Skate Park: Breakdown of £60k
Wednesday, 23rd April, 2008 at 5:57 pm, Isle of Wight
Finally, VentnorBlog has received the breakdown of the £60,000 figure quoted by IW Property Services to Ventnor Town Council regarding the Ventnor Skate Park.
We should have received this on Friday when the IW Council press office tell us they sent it, but for some reason, it didn’t get to us. Something to do with it not being sent to our regular VentnorBlog email account, but there you go.
We’ve got it now and can share with you details of the costs estimated to complete the renovation of the Ventnor Skate Park.
In addition to the rough breakdown of costs, there is also a statement from Stuart Love, IW Council director of environment and neighbourhoods. It’s a little confusing, he says ….
“At no time has the IW Council asked for £60K or even £50K from any organisation to do the work - our preferred solution is for locals and users to manage it themselves with the support of a responsible body who can ensure that safety standards are adhered to.
Not sure what Stuart is getting at here, no-one has said that the council asked for £60k to be handed over. What Property Services did, was tell the Ventnor Town Council that if they wanted to take over responsibility for the skate park that the cost of finishing the renovations and maintaining it, the figure required would be in the region of £60k.
He continues ….
We have no desire to see a community facility lost and hope such a body will come forward in the near future.
That’s great to hear Stuart and we hope that the council will do all they can to help the organisation who are planning to take on responsibility for this much needed and loved facility.
We know you’re all dying to see the breakdown, please remember that they are rough costs. We’re totally amazed by the size of the figures for the various pieces of work. We also wonder whether the VTC were advised that the £60k cost could be dramatically reduced if they chose not to raise the sea wall level? Or if they chose to keep hold of the recently renovated equipment rather than buy new?
UPDATE: It appears not from the councillor that we spoke to about this.
Costs:
Remove current concrete pad and create a new, higher concrete pad on existing site to include groundwork stabilisation and leveling to ensure stability of ground - £20,000
Removal and temporary storage of ramps to upper car park while ground stabilisation works carried out - £7,500
Remove existing loose rubble and prepare surface to an acceptable and safe standard - £5,000
Reduce threat of flooding and reduce wave action by raising sea wall level (Optional Work) - £10,000
Replace existing equipment on site (Optional Work as existing equipment is in satisfactory condition) - £7,500
Installation of fencing around site - £6,000
TOTAL COST - £56,000 (or £38,500 with no work to sea wall and equipment)
As Matthew Chatfield, Manager for Parks and Countryside, has stated several times, the cost of this work would be dramatically reduced if carried out locally.
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April 23rd, 2008 at 6:44 pm
Maybe that nice millionaire man who is supposed to be developing the La Veness site into a 6 storey block of flats will make a contribution.
April 24th, 2008 at 10:08 am
Glad you’re looking into this Sal & Simon, and drumming up support for the skate park from Rob da Bank, island bands etc. I notice whenever I’m in Freshwater how well-used the ramps by West Wight Sports Centre are. It’s important to have (and keep) these facilities.
April 24th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
£20000 for a concrete slab?
£7500 to move and store some ramps?
£5000 to move a bit of rubble?
£6000 to put a fence up?
Matthew Chatfield is spot on about the work costing ALOT less if carried out locally.
As far as I can tell these inflated figures actually raise more questions than they answer - could the Council please tell us where this quote has come from and how much more taxpayer’s cash they’ve squandered by overpaying for similar services?
(NB - this is of course a rhetorical question - I don’t for one second expect the Isle Of Wight Council to remember they’re an elected body paid for and employed by Islanders to serve and maintain their communities. They might as well call it the Isle Of Wight Opaque Council - please try and grasp the fact you’re being paid to make things clearer AND NOT foggier Cllr Pugh and co….)
April 24th, 2008 at 6:35 pm
Oh, we remember alright.
And if you ask I can and will show you the costs that we pay for the various services procured through my section. All our transactions are open to public scrutiny unless there’s a reason otherwise: see http://iwight.com/foi/
For my service there are hardly any transactions that are not fully public. Ask, if you doubt me.
April 24th, 2008 at 8:58 pm
Good news Matthew.
I’m glad the Council’s so open - that’s the way it should be.
I suppose what I’m asking now is how many companies did the Council get quotes from for the Ventnor Skate Park work? (If you could let the good people of Ventnorblog know - and the difference between these - that’d be great.)
I’m not being rude, but I’m pretty sure most of us could find a significantly lower quote from professionals for the jobs listed - it’s no good just breaking down the costings without other quotes to compare them against - whichever way you look at it, the 60K originally suggested for the necessary work appears alarmingly high.
To an outsider it does rather seem that was the intention - as I said, the question it’s raised for me now is how does the Council decide who to employ for these jobs, and how many contractors in total are approached to make sure costs are kept down?
I would guess the people who actually use this site and know its’ usage inside out (i.e the skaters) were consulted at a pretty early stage and they’ve all agreed this is the work that needs to be carried out - or am I wrong on this front? If they weren’t consulted - why not? If they were I’m assuming they were equally alarmed at the alleged costs?
April 24th, 2008 at 9:07 pm
You need to keep the skate park open! ok! just keep it open, ive taken some amazing photographs down there that have got me A’s in my work! So many people use is and its another reason to keep people from skating on the streets so keep it open and make it better!!
April 24th, 2008 at 9:48 pm
The figures were indicative of the cost to IW Council only. We haven’t asked or expected anyone to stump up that sort of money. And no, we have not discussed this with a group of skaters as one of the problems has been that we’ve been unable to identify such a group who are in a position to discuss such things. Had such a group existed undoubtedly they would have been the first port of call.
For some background have a look at the press release on iwight.com which says:
“We have not sought quotes but following a detailed site visit we estimate that if the local authority were to carry out the necessary repairs to the area, it would cost in excess of £50,000″
And Stuart Love’s statement above which says:
“At no time has the IW Council asked for £60K or even £50K from any organisation to do the work”
And in general, if we let a contract for (say) £60K we’d be obliged to seek three written competitive quotations, and then a director would sign it off before the contract is awarded. There are pages of procedures to ensure we all get this right at the Council - so if you want to know more about those things do ask.
April 24th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
Cheers Matthew - you’ve been a great help mate.
I’m probably not the only person who was shocked by the 50-60K figure - I’m still tremendously worried that our local authority has looked at the site and estimated that as the cost for the suggested work though (because I’d guess there was a good reason for said estimate - i.e - that’s the sort of thing they’ve paid out for similar work before).
Sounds like the process needs to be opened up more - perhaps the Council could circulate forthcoming work between more than 3 companies or even list what needs doing on the Council website so that contractors can then bid for the jobs (thus keeping costs down) - if the Council pay that well I’m sure they’ll be a lot of people queuing up to offer quotes.
The logical thing of course would have been to involve the skaters and listen to their opinions and suggestions as to what needs doing (and who should do it), but I must have missed the appeal for them to come forward as a group for a chat before the threat of closure. Hopefully lessons will have been learned because I’m afraid it does still look as if this whole thing has been handled very very badly from the Council’s end.
April 25th, 2008 at 1:33 am
Wow, a reply! Thats great news. I would nominate the only clear ambassador of skating on the Island and thats John Cattle. He is the man to confer with. Then I would look at various skate shops, revolver for one, who could also have an important view on such things.
With massive respects to Anthony Minghella and his high profile achievments, it’s about time the council took notice of less high profile initiatives equally crucial to maintaining direction & inpiration for people of all ages and class denomination on this Island.
It seems a funny co-incidence that we face such prospect of closures when the council’s wage bill has increased so dramatically in recent years.
Has politics gone so out of control that the council have lost connection with the public and logical decision? I have never been so informed of council practises until I read and first hand experienced the misdemeanours that have been going on….Not to tar everyone with the same brush as i am sure there are plenty of good things the council achieve…I just don’t seem to feel the benefit from where I am looking.
The votes will show come election and this time people are more connected than ever to make a difference. Nice one internet, nice one Ventnor Blog, thanks Leeroy & Matthew for enlightening me further.
Lets hope something progressive and positive comes from this.
April 25th, 2008 at 10:34 am
Good work VB for finally getting a set of figures. Seems fairly clear that the council have presented the cost of keeping the skate park open in a wilfully negative light. The question then is; what is their real agenda?
April 25th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
Council financial arithmetic is always from a different planet. Remember, they spent £55k on the education questionnaire!