SURF REEF: "We should have done a full survey on Overstrand building" (From Bournemouth Echo)

SURF REEF: "We should have done a full survey on Overstrand building"

8:34am Friday 13th February 2009 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
• Comments(6)

THERE was amazement as councillors found out how “thin” the management of the Surf Reef project has been.

The project manager worked two days a week and retired at the end of December after spending his last few weeks off sick.

The work was being done by one department – the business unit in leisure services – as it simultaneously tried to manage several other projects.

The biggest mistake was trying to save money and time by not carrying out a full structural survey of the Overstrand building.

They made drawings of the outside and surveyed the balconies but never actually looked inside.

Head of leisure services Roger Brown admitted to Wednesday’s special scrutiny panel meeting: “It was much worse than we had estimated. On reflection we should have done a more total survey.”

The council has brought in a new project manager with a more “robust approach”, the experienced council engineer Geoff Turnbull, and management costs have also gone up £64,000.

New measures include transferring control to the planning department, a new reporting structure and more formal progress meetings.

Cllr Linda Price, said: “This should have been done on day one. This issue has been hugely disappointing to everybody. This is wonderful project that could have been a shining example to everybody.”

Mr Brown also apologised to councillors because the £1.05m cost of fitting out of the 60 “Surf Pods” had never previously been revealed.

Cllr Mark Anderson said to him: “I amazed, and I find it very disappointing, that your staff have not come to you and told you about all these overspends.”

The Overstrand’s redevelopment into shops and restaurants is 95 per cent ready and the Barratt Homes flats behind it are 60 per cent finished – the council thinks both should be done by May.

Mr Brown said sales of the Barratt homes “continue to do well” and that the previous "super-huts" were “selling well off-plan despite the recession”.

He said the extra £678,000 would have been needed for the Overstrand works whether there had been a full survey or not.