Construction

Correction! LC were not sacked by Hackney.

Eleven months after the article below appeared in Construction and nine months after it appeared on this site with my comment I received a statement from the magazine saying they had got it wrong. An apology will appear in Construction's 7 July edition. This will state that the claim that LC were sacked by Hackney was unfounded and provide an apology. It is curious why what appears to be a simple matter of inaccurate reporting took so long to be clarified.

In case anyone thinks LC walked away from Hackney with honour, see the extracts at the bottom of this page, previously not published on LCW, and the other Hackney pages. Given these, one might well ask why Hackney Council did not sack LC or at the least seek compensation for unacceptable standards?

Clissold Leisure Centre is still not open. On 23rd June the estimate was £6.5 million for repairs and opening is summer of 2007- see Not the Clissold for updates. PB 5.7.07

The article below is the only one I am aware of that has used the term "sacked". No correction had appeared on the Building website as of 14.9.05. Given Graham Farrant's position in the construction industry, see below, it seems unlikely he would not be aware of the item. PB September 2005

from Building 29.7.05 http://www.building.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=3054404&sectioncode=29

Hackney council sacks Clissold operator
Leisure Connection are sacked three years into a 15-year operating contract.

Hackney council has sacked the operator of the Clissold Leisure Centre and admitted that it is throwing yet more time and money at the stricken scheme, writes George Hay. The council has dismissed Leisure Connection after three years of a 15-year operating contract, and a week after it conceded that the architect and contractor of the centre were not to blame for its defects.

The council had been in mediation between architect Hodder Associates, contractor Gleeson and the council last week. Both firms paid an undisclosed sum to the council and in return were exonerated of liability.

Meanwhile, Jules Pipe, the mayor of Hackney, has agreed to £1.2m of improvements over and above the £5.1m set aside last November for “essential repair works”. This will come out of the council’s capital investment programme and will mean that the centre’s opening date is pushed back to summer 2006, instead of February.

In a letter to residents, Pipe partly blamed the delays on a spat in May, when the operator refused to allow Wates on site to start repair works. He said: “Clissold will not reopen in February or March next year as originally forecast. It will open later in the summer. There are two reasons for this. The first is that we could not gain access to the centre to start works during the negotiations with Leisure Connection, which led to the mutually agreed termination of our contract with them. The second is that we have scheduled a programme of improvements, in addition to the remedial work necessary to fix the centre.”

Hackney council and Leisure Connection had been locked in negotiations over the future of the contract and eventually agreed to part company. However, the delay meant repair works could not be started for six weeks. The council is understood to have already picked a replacement operator, which will be named next month.

The Clissold centre, which was originally due to be completed in 1999, opened in February 2002. It closed shortly afterwards, and has been the subject of forensic and structural examination ever since. So far, it has cost the council about £30m more than planned.

Constructing Excellence and client's group merge From Contract Journal 13.9.05 http://www.contractjournal.com/home/Default.asp?type=2&liArticleID=48137&liSectionID=11&liDF=0

Constructing Excellence and the Construction Client’s Group (CCG) have merged. The two bodies will campaign to support both private and public sector customers of construction by promoting best practice and sponsoring business performance improvement.

CCG believes the partnership with Constructing Excellence will enable it to expand the services it offers. CCG will take seats on Constructing Excellence’s decision making Executive Council and the two groups will share Constructing Excellence’s office in Buckingham Palace Road, London.

"We already had a good relationship with CCG and by coming within Constructing Excellence we can build on that and really ensure that the customer is fully served on the back of the long term prosperity of the industry,” said Constructing Excellence chairman Peter Rogers.

CCG chairman Graham Farrant added: "Another advantage is that with Constructing Excellence also having a client following, we are creating one substantial pool of clients to communicate with the industry. Something that arguably we have not previously had."

LCW wishes the merged body more success with new buildings than users of the Clissold Leisure Centre have experienced over the last two years. I can't help but wonder if LC's appointment of Graham Farrant as Chief Executive had something do with seeking leverage during the bitter fallout between Hackney Council, LC, the architect and the builder of Clissold? Or was it another job nobody else wanted? PB

From Building Magazine 21.5.04 by Tom Boughton http://www.building.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=3035992

A Grave Responsibility

Graham Farrant's task is to create a profitable group that will advise individual clients and lobby for their collective interests. This is about as popular a job as undertaking – which is apt, given what happened to the last body.

Graham Farrant has taken a job that nobody else wanted, and he knows it. As the newly appointed chairman of the Construction Clients Group, Farrant has the task of making a success of a representative body that has historically failed to attract funds, members and, most crucially, interest from the industry.

The last person who tried to make a success of representing clients' interests in construction was Carillion starlet Zara Lamont, who oversaw the Confederation of Construction Clients more than two years ago. And even her high-profile and enthusiastic stewardship could not prevent the confederation's long, agonising death as its membership waned and its bank account drained away...

Farrant was headhunted by Chris Morley, who established the CCG during a secondment from his post as construction director at the British Property Federation. Farrant was selected as chairman because of his experience as a construction client – he currently oversees £100m a year of construction spending at Barking and Dagenham, including the high-profile Barking Reach housing scheme.

However, it is widely known Farrant was not the first choice for the job. A number of private sector property developers were approached before, and according to one prominent property figure, each turned it down on the grounds that it was the "construction industry equivalent to being an undertaker"....

Extracts From Hackney Council's Clissold Leisure Centre Public Consultation Report - March 2005 http://www.hackney.gov.uk/cs-clissold-leisure-centre-public-consultation-report-final.doc

The feedback given by members of the public made it clear that users were not experiencing a satisfactory level of customer service. There were many comments about poorly trained staff, long queues at reception, problems booking classes, centre not opening on time, low staffing levels, poor monitoring of facilities, lack of information and inaccurate information, and poor signage.

It was also felt that there was misuse of facilities in that people who had not paid to use the saunas, for example, were getting in without being stopped, and that anti-social behaviour such as eating and shaving in the health suite was not being challenged by the management.

There were also comments about poor cleanliness and hygiene in many areas of the centre, including swimming and changing areas and squash courts. It was felt that maintenance of all areas was poor and that the lines of accountability between the Council and the operating company were unclear in this area. There was a great deal of positive feedback about the quality of swimming lessons and exercise classes.

... It also revealed that there was very little useful information available about membership and joining fees. Users were also frustrated by the fact that membership was limited to one centre and they could not get borough-wide membership. There were several comments about affordability of membership and swimming lessons, and complaints that even full members often had to pay extra for some classes. ..

...The floors in the changing room were very slippery but this may be maintenance rather than a design issue...

...The centre’s policy to not allow buggies in the building was a problem for many parents, as was the shortage of nappy changing facilities...

Gym, Dry Facilities & Sports Hall- Comments about these facilities often reflected wider customer service issues, such as an unreliable booking system for badminton, and nets not being put out at the start of session. The time-consuming and repetitive booking system for classes was also a problem for many users. Gym users expressed a feeling that there was a lack of fitness expertise amongst the staff, who were mainly very young, and that they felt unsupported in using the equipment. It was felt that fitness experts should be on hand, both for health and safety reasons and to assist users in improving their fitness.

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