A new tennis court is being dug up before it’s even opened because it was made using the “wrong kind of tarmac”.
Contractors began digging up the surface of the courts in the new Hove Beach Park development yesterday. One worker told a resident who asked this was because the wrong kind of surface had been used.
Now it is being replaced, at the contractor’s cost.
Councillor Julie Cattell, Brighton & Hove City Council’s policy lead for major projects, said: “Unfortunately, after the initial build we identified some issues with the playing surface which need to be resolved by the contractor.
“We want our residents to enjoy the highest-quality facilities and after consulting with the Lawn Tennis Association, there were elements which needed improvement. This will be paid for by the contractor, not the council.
“Work has now begun and residents will be able to start enjoying these fantastic new courts before the end of the year.”
The courts are part of the new Hove Beach Park, which is regenerating the underused facilities and green spaces on the seafront in West Hove.
Last month, a new skatepark, pump track and roller area opened.
The new park will stretch from Hove Lagoon to the King Alfred Leisure Centre. When finished it will feature the new Outdoor Sports Hub plus gardens, wheeled sports areas, tennis and padel tennis courts, a croquet lawn and improvements to the facilities at Hove Lagoon.
Predominantly funded by the government’s Levelling Up Fund, work is expected to be completed towards the end of this year.
Guess this kind of farcical situation will continue to happen whilst the council spouts its constant “value for money” narrative to justify giving contracts to companies ill equipped to understand what the tight kind of tarmac is.
How did this company get through the vetting and tender process if it does such shoddy work and makes this kind of basic error. Imagine it may be the same company the council uses for potholes – which would explain a lot!
Have you never made a mistake?
Becausr this is what it is.
It was made. It was spotted and is now being corrected at the expense of the contractor.
I’ve never used the wrong type of tarmac, no. If it was my job to lay tarmac, I’m also pretty confident I would take care to use the right kind of tarmac.
It’s not an isolated issue either though it it, think it was only a month ago that the council had to get a contractor to redo yellow lines in Kemptown because they weren’t up to scratch. Before the council did that work it’s been said that Trevor Muten made the case that the “micro-resurfacing” would be done at a fraction of the cost of traditional roadworks and offered “better value for money”, only for it to be ballsed up by the contractor and needing to be redone. People tend to learn from their mistakes, but the council seems to keep going for “value for money” contractors and they have not learnt yet that this runs the risk of “mistakes” happening this often.
You’re not perfect Trevor, and you can make mistakes as well. Just the same as Chris, myself, and anyone else. The evidence is the grammatical errors you made in your comment. It undermines the viewpoint you are trying to argue, my friend.
Quality assurance did its job here, and the remedial work is at no extra cost to the project, just as Chris has correctly mentioned. As much as I enjoy a good battle of words, it is not that deep I’m afraid.
It’s frustrating that they’ve not opened the actual park area yet (next to skate park). Although it currently looks more like weeds than a grass.
Classic Clowncil.
If there is a way to squander public money on blunders, they will find it. Remember when they put the wrong paving at Brighton Station, had to re-do 7 Dials roundabout about 3 times and then collapsed all the surrounding roads with overweight hybrid buses breaching their own road weight limit warnings. while pretending to ‘improve’ Western Road for 2 years. Now lorries and buses can hardly overtake it is so narrow! We must hope and pray that VG3 never happens as that would be the economic end for our city.
Read the article. The council didn’t make the mistake, the contractors did.
The mistake didn’t cost any extra public money.
And mistakes happen. Personally I think this development is a real improvement.
And will you ever stop banging on about VG3? You have absolutely no idea whether it will be a success or not, because it hasn’t happened yet.
People who make changes to our city, in an effort to improve it, no matter how misguided you may find them, are worth 1,000 times more than the negative, know-it-all, carping critics who sit on the sidelines amplifying every error and congratulating themselves on how much cleverer they are than the people actually DOING something constructive.
I have read the article. Of course mistakes happen, but the council repeatedly use contractors who repeatedly make mistakes, or act in ways that are not OK – people should learn from mistakes and do things differently to reduce the possibility of them happening again.
Take the council’s temporary housing contracts, the council have paid millions to companies (using taxpayers’ money) for properties with collapsing ceilings that have injured residents. In this case they gave a contract to a company who apparently seemed incapable of knowing what the right type of tarmac they should be using was. What kind of tender and contract sign off process does the council actually have in place!
If it were an isolated mistake it wouldn’t be a big issue, but it’s not. The contractor looks stupid, but so does the council for repeatedly using different contractors who repeatedly make stupid mistakes. It’s a pattern, and in some cases it does come with costs to the taxpayer – even if not in this one.
The big flaw in your argument is that it is fallacious circular reasoning – it doesn’t mean, explain, or justify anything.
Barry the clown at it again and not reading the article and conflating several separate issues.
Brighton Station paving was also an error by the contractor who paid to put the specified paving in place.
Oh Barry, speaking of repeating the same mistake, I think I’ve mentioned this several times to you over the past year about making generalised statements like that without reading the information in front of you carefully. I love your passion for things, but I really hope you learn to direct that in a more accurate way.