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Greenwich news and information

Council admits foot tunnel upgrades in trouble

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Greenwich Foot Tunnel

  • Greenwich Council admits foot tunnel upgrades have gone wrong, threatens legal action against contractors
  • No work currently taking place on stalled project
  • Local Conservatives say council “simply does not know what it is doing”

GREENWICH Council will this week try and work out a way ahead to rescue the stalled refurbishment of Greenwich and Woolwich foot tunnels.

Over two years since the £11.5 million upgrade commenced, the tunnels sit unfinished with no work currently taking place, providing “an unacceptable and deteriorating environment,” says a report by council officers which will be considered by the cabinet on Wednesday evening.

The new plan,  expected to be agreed by the Cabinet,  will see a new contractor brought in to finish the project and the setting up of an independent review in to how the council runs big projects. The council also plans to appoint legal experts to help recover some of the costs from the bungled project.

What went wrong

Work started on an extensive refurbishment of the century-old river crossings in March 2010 after a grant to pay for the works was issued by central government. The plan attracted controversy from the beginning with information short on how  tunnel users would be affected while works took place.

Dean & Dyball Civil Engineering (DDCE) were appointed as lead contractor with Messrs Sweett as Project Managers and Hyder Consulting as Lead Designer.

Sixteen months after work started, with cost estimates exceeded and schedules not met, the council says it engaged in “more intense scrutiny of the project” and agreed a new plan with DDCE to at least get the lifts working by Christmas 2011 but even this revised target wasn’t met.

By December 2011, the council finally took full control of the project and terminated the agreements with the contractors.

The lifts in Greenwich Foot Tunnel were at long last operational by April 2012, but have been hit by frequent breakdowns and there is much work to be done, with stairwells at both side still restricted in width because of temporary hoardings erected.

Woolwich Foot Tunnel has no working lifts.

Reaction

In a statement issued at the weekend, Greenwich Council apologised for the “over budget” and incomplete refurbishments.

“The Royal Borough of Greenwich shares the frustration of tunnel users and the general public over the time taken to complete this project and apologises for the ongoing delays to this work,” says the statement.

It adds: “Legal advice is being sought from a firm of specialist construction lawyers to determine any case for recovering the additional costs from the contractors.”

The leader of the Greenwich Conservatives, Cllr Spencer Drury,  told Greenwich.co.uk that the cabinet should be “ashamed.”

“This is a shocking tale of mismanagement which shows that this Council simply does not know what it is doing.  In the report it suggests that the Council has a good record of managing projects, but one of their quoted examples the Eltham Centre went up in flames due to faulty wiring shortly after its completion.”

“It is simply wrong that Council Tax payers are being asked to foot the bill for this chaos.”

“At a time of austerity to be stumping up more than £11m to replace a couple lifts and slap a bit of paint on because the Labour Council can’t manage their way out of a paper bag is outrageous and Labour Cabinet members should be ashamed of themselves.”

Click here to read the report by council officers that will be considered by the cabinet on Wednesday evening.

See also: 853 – The unanswered questions on Greenwich and Woolwich foot tunnels


The stairs in Greenwich Foot Tunnel

052

New Greenwich hotel prepares to open

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Mercure Greenwich

GREENWICH’s newest hotel is just weeks away from opening its doors to the public.

The new 145-room Mercure Greenwich hotel in Catherine Grove will welcome its first guests in November following a total transformation.

The 1930s building was originally a Metropolitan Police section house but had been empty for years until it was purchased by Periquin Ltd, owned by Lady Rona Delves Broughton.

The revamp has seen extensive internal refurbishment and redesign with the addition of two new floors at the top to create penthouse suites overlooking London.

The new four star hotel, where standard room rates start at £139 per night, also has a glamorous bar and restaurant which will both be open to the wider public as well as hotel guests.

Sales and Marketing Manager, Rachel Osborn, said: “We are thrilled to be opening The Mercure London Greenwich Hotel in such a marvellous part of London.

“The hotel design and refurbishment reflects our exceptional surroundings and the team here are ready and looking forward delivering true hospitality to all of our guests.”

First Look Inside The New Mercure Greenwich

Mercure Greenwich - restaurant
Restaurant

Mercure Greenwich - the bar
The bar – open to the public as well as guests

Mercure Greenwich - Penthouse floor to ceiling windows
View from one side of a penthouse suite

Mercure Greenwich
Hotel exterior

New deli planned in Nelson Road

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Bar du Musee, now closed in Greenwich
Jamie’s Italian expected to replace the now closed Bar du Musee

JAMIE Oliver’s forthcoming Greenwich restaurant will include a new deli when it opens early next year.

Plans have been submitted to Greenwich Council for alterations to the Grade-II listed Bar Du Musee to turn it into the latest branch of Essex-born chef’s chain, Jamie’s Italian.

The application envisages “internal alterations to facilitate Restaurant with Deli at No. 17 [Nelson Road].”

The entrance to the new restaurant would be at 19 Nelson Road, which has been the cafe area of Bar Du Musee and was formerly called George of Greenwich.

The arrival of Jamie Oliver’s Italian chain to Greenwich town centre was confirmed last month by Greenwich Hospital’s Property Manager, Gilly Bexson.

 

Greenwich People: Carl Medland

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Greenwich film director, Carl Medland

LOCAL film director Carl Medland loves Greenwich so much, he made it the co-star in his first feature film ‘The Cost of Love.’

“I love how Greenwich is a backdrop to many films and period dramas, but I feel these films never show Greenwich off as it is today. With The Cost of Love, we have captured contemporary Greenwich – in fact, the whole film is set in Greenwich.”

The director, who has called Greenwich home for thirteen years, continues:

“I love Greenwich with all my heart and believe as a gay man it has much appeal in its gay friendly community, not just the gay bars I have seen open and close over the years but also it’s about the people and characters that live in the royal borough.

“My film has won Best Feature at an international film festival and has been nominated for Best Film nine times. Whilst touring with the film around the world it’s interesting to hear the comments on the film.”

The Cost of Love was nominated for Best Film at a recent film festival where, ironically, it was beaten by Medland’s second film, The Adored.

“Despite not winning, the audience commented on the location and how beautiful Greenwich is. This is very common feedback I get at the international festivals. They love the characters and the place; both of which are why I remain living in Greenwich.”

The Cost of Love is available from Amazon.co.uk

Greenwich film director, Carl Medland

Daily Photo: 01/10/2012 – Santa at the Cutty Sark

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It might be eighty-four days until Christmas but you weren’t imagining things if you thought you saw Santa out and about in Greewnich this morning.

Managers from De Vere Venues Devonport House were taking part in an “Apprentice style” challenge to promote their Christmas offering and one of them got to don Father Christmas’ red and white costume.

Council asked to consider allowing meetings to be recorded

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Council Chamber - Woolwich Town Hall

THE LEADER of Greenwich Council has been asked to consider allowing members of the public to record council meetings.

Greenwich Council’s constitution forbids the recording of council meetings without the prior consent of the Mayor, who chairs full council meetings, in consultation with the Chief Executive.

Councillor Nigel Fletcher (Conservative, Eltham North) said at Wednesday night’s full council meeting that this was “putting barriers in the way of members of the public taking an interest in proceedings in this chamber.”

He asked the Leader of the Council if the council could “look at changing the constitution to remove this obstacle.”

Councillor Chris Roberts replied: “Given my well known love of all things technological and the anti-social network sites… That’s obviously something for the council to consider. If that’s what it wants to consider, we will do so.”

Cllr Roberts also said in a written answer that “we have received no recent requests to record the proceedings in the Council Chamber.”

Greenwich.co.uk made a formal request to Greenwich Council in March 2011 to record a council meeting but permission was declined.

The government wrote to all local authorities in February 2011 encouraging them to allow meetings to be recorded.

“The public should rightly expect that elected representatives who have put themselves up for public office be prepared for their decisions to be as transparent as possible and welcome a direct line of communication to their electorate,” the letter from the then local government minister stated.

Council Chamber - Woolwich Town Hall

Why I’m walking the SHINE night marathon

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Greenwich resident Sinead Masterson explains why she is taking part in the SHINE night marathon this weekend.

My husband Tim and I have been living happily in Greenwich for 5 years, and we work nearby in Canary Wharf. In March this year, at the age of 40, I was diagnosed with stage 4 ovarian cancer.

I was shocked to be told I had a rare and very aggressive germ cell tumour, as I’d always been fit and healthy and had only recently started to feel unwell. I underwent surgery and very intensive chemotherapy from March until June which saved my life.

Thankfully I’m now in remission, but this experience has changed my lens on life. As a goal to help me get back my fitness and as a “thank-you” for my recovery, Tim and I are undertaking the SHINE night marathon in London in aid of Cancer Research on Sept 29th.

Completing the marathon is partly a goal for my recovery (since there were times during treatment when I couldn’t even walk the quarter-of-a-mile from our house to the train station, so being well enough to walk 26 miles will be a big achievement for me!), but it’s mostly because we’d like to give something back as a thank-you for my recovery and to help more people beat cancer in the future.

Overall this episode of my life has been an extremely positive and very humbling journey, and it’s given me a deep appreciation for my life and what is really important to me. I give my whole-hearted thanks to all the staff at the London Bridge Hospital and Guys Hospital for taking such great care of me.

Many other types of cancer do not yet have such high survival rates and unfortunately more than 1-in-3 of us will develop cancer at some point in our lives. A donation to Cancer Research will help to fund important scientific research and clinical trials for new drugs and treatments.

Please donate whatever you can – big or small – it’s an extremely worthy cause.

If you would like to sponsor Sinead, you can do so by visiting her JustGiving page.

Council pressed over car parking charges

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THE CABINET member responsible for car parking in the borough says current pricing is “reasonable.”

Cllr Denise Hyland was answering a question from Conservative Deputy Leader Alex Wilson at Wednesday’s full council meeting, who wanted to know if she agreed with a Labour MP’s recent warning on the price of car parking.

He asked: “Does she agree with Labour MP David Crausby, in relation to car parking charges, that if local authorities charge excessively for car parking within high streets and town centres, town centres are going to continue to die?”

Cllr Hyland began her reply by referring to Westminster Council.

“Well, I’m not taking any lessons from Westminster [council] that’s for certain where the Leader had to resign over the fiasco there and the Cabinet Member has now been shifted sideways, Mr Mayor.”

She continued: “There’s always a balance, isn’t there.  Everybody wants controls, everybody wants enforcement, nobody particularly wants to pay for it and the only way that we can fund enforcement is actually through levying a reasonable charge and if that’s what you wanted to hear from me about reasonableness, that’s what you will hear from this side of the Chamber around all issues including car parking.”

The council ramped up the price of parking at its Greenwich town centre car parks from £1.30 per hour to £2.50 per hour last year.

Greenwich.co.uk revealed last October that the big price hike was delivering only a modest increase in revenue.

Earlier this year, council officers told councillors that the increases had only netted half the amount anticipated, and admitted they have not conducted any studies into the impact of the increases on local businesses

A further increase to £2.70 per hour is planned for next year.