On LineYou Can Email
at Waiting for the ghost bus Page
by Page
|
|
. | ||||||||
| . | NOT WAVING BUT DROWNINGThe public has now been told that the cost of the new Clissold Leisure Centre is currently running at £26.7 million - and still incomplete - even though the original estimate was in the region of £11 million. More than that, the building is now two years late, and people are still impatiently waiting to breathe that elusive smell of chlorine, damp swimming costumes and wet paint. They are advised not to hold their breath, as the opening date is being deferred yet again at the time of going to press. ‘Never apologise, never explain’, is the watchword of political life today. Those with long memories may recall that when the project was announced, Hackney Council proclaimed that ‘The success of the Clissold Leisure Centre depends upon the active participation of local people in the project.’ However, although jointly funded by Hackney Council and the Sport England Lottery Unit (both public bodies), the long history of mis-management and financial incompetence surrounding the building of the
Leisure Centre has been conducted in total secrecy. The latest report on this sorry saga was presented to the Council’s Policy and Finance Executive Committee on 26 February, but was declared to be an ‘exempt item’, to be discussed only when the public were excluded. So much for open government. Clissold Leisure Centre is currently running at £26.7 million — and still incomplete — even though the original estimate was in the region of £11 million. More than that, the building is now two years late The question as to who will manage it, according to what kinds of pricing and concessionary policies, remains completely in the dark. The chances are that this new Centre, wholly financed by public money, will be handed over to the private sector to run once it has been completed. A Council which once prided itself upon its social vision has become just another economic basket-case, selling off as many public assets as it can, wholly - and rightly in Hackney’s case one has to concede convinced of its inability to finance, manage or run any kind of service efficiently or successfully. Not waving, but drowning.
|
. | ||||||||
|
|
||||||||||
