THE contractors building Bournemouth’s surf reef are working on another project in India – and council chiefs are not convinced they will return to finish the job.
The shock news has startled councillors and is the latest twist in the controversial tale of the Boscombe reef project.
The reef is the key part of the Boscombe Spa development and costs for the whole project have risen by a third to hit £11m.
Head of leisure services, Roger Brown, admitted the council has approached other companies in case the hired contractor ASR does not return from another reef project in India to finish the work.
“Our preferred route is for ASR to return,” said Mr Brown. “However we need to have the option of a Plan B.”
The news came at a special council scrutiny meeting to look into the spiralling costs. ASR and the council suspended work for the winter with the reef 60 per cent built.
The Indian press reported ASR began work building a 500 metre surf reef in Kerala, partly funded by the tsunami relief fund, at the end of December but work stalled due to “administrative delays”.
The council will now have to pay £100,000 towards ASR’s bill of nearly £300,000 for shipping their equipment to and from India.
Mr Brown said: “We are leaving payment as late as possible in terms of securing ASR’s return.”
Some councillors angrily proposed suspending all payments but council leader Cllr Stephen MacLoughlin warned them off.
He said: “The council could be in breach of contract and potentially it would let ASR off the hook and we would be at serious risk of ASR walking away from the contract.”
However Labour’s Cllr Ben Grower said: “I have had correspondence from people all over the country, from New Zealand, from America, that this whole project is the laughing stock of people in the trade of marine developments.”
Independent Cllr Anne Rey said: “The contractors have gone to India and taken all their equipment with them – we are just hoping they will come back.”
The tentative timetable is for ASR’s new project manager to arrive in the next few weeks and for work to be finished by mid July, though delays to the Indian surf reef could have a knock-on effect.
The panel agreed to recommend paying up to an extra £346,000 costs for the surf reef, although it believes it will only need to spend just over half.
When the reef is completed, Plymouth University will assess whether the waves are good enough to trigger a final £150,000 payment.
The meeting heard government permission for beach front work took nearly a year, not the advised three months, and ASR’s work permits took nine weeks, not the advised three.
Mr Brown also said “we had the windiest July and August for the last 60 years”, though the council later corrected this to ‘since 1996’.
Cllr Beverly Dunlop, cabinet member for economy and tourism, said in a statement: “I requested the Scrutiny hearing in the interests of being open, honest and transparent over where the additional costs had arisen and I am pleased a full and open discussion has taken place.
“We are also still on track to deliver a first rate flagship development that will see the town firmly on the international map.”
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