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Camden New Journal - LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published:28 June 2007

Cracks in the paving job aren’t that crazy

• AFTER reading your front page story about the repair work to the Whittington estate (Six cracks at crazy paving job, June 21), I wanted to reassure readers about the inaccurate and misleading information on the cost of the project.
This is a £4.3 million project to carry out extensive repairs and redecoration. We estimate it will still be completed within 10 per cent of the original budget. This addition would be because of an increase in the scope of the contract rather than poor management.
Clearly there have been unacceptable delays to the work on this estate, and we sympathise with residents about the effect this must have had on their quality of life.
We are working with the contractor employed on site, to ensure repairs are completed as soon as possible.
We believe there were shortcomings in the original specification and how the contract was managed on the ground.
We have already replaced the architects firm administering the project for the council. However, we believe a continuing cause of the delays is that the contractor is simply not putting enough labour on site to get the job done properly and on time.
Some work has had to be redone several times before it met the required standards.
Camden runs a very substantial capital investment programme and we do listen to residents’ views on these matters.
The majority of residents who benefit from this kind of work are satisfied with the service they receive.
The situation which has affected residents at Whittington estate is far from typical.
It is very disappointing that the shortcomings of this contract have meant that residents have suffered as a result.
CLLR CHRIS NAYLOR
Executive member for
housing
Camden Council

• IN respect of your front page story (Six cracks at crazy paving job, June 21), I must express my concern that officers and the executive have not come up with any solution to this project which has been beset with difficulties since it began.
As reported last week, the first phase should have been over in April 2006 but more than 14 months later nothing has been completed.
This is a total embarrassment, a complete fiasco.
It is simply unacceptable that the administration has left this project to drift, leaving residents with no sense of when it will be completed – in fact whether it ever will be competed.
As a local ward councillor I have, along with other residents ,highlighted the impossible situation residents have been left in. But all we have is meeting after meeting with sympathy and concern expressed but no concrete action.
The costs are now reputed to be 100 per cent over budget – who is going to pay?
This does not bode well for an administration that plans to build a new school and an expensive new swimming pool. If the executive does not address this lack of capacity to deal with these projects without delay, we risk serious financial problems in future years.
We need a capable and determined team with the full support and the time commitment of the executive member and senior staff to address this failing project – just in the way we would address a failing school.
The council executive has had a year to take this project in hand and turn it round.
This has not happened but I must ask them to do so now and show that they not only mean well but have the skills and determination to run this borough well!
CLLR MAYA DE SOUZA (green)
Highgate Ward

Send your letters to: The Letters Editor, Camden New Journal, 40 Camden Road, London, NW1 9DR or email to letters@camdennewjournal.co.uk. The deadline for letters is midday Tuesday. The editor regrets that anonymous letters cannot be published, although names and addresses can be withheld. Please include a full name, postal address and telephone number. Letters may be edited for reasons of space.

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