So "not" a story was this latest minor hiccup to their watery plans, that it was not only the leader who felt it neccasary to fill the letters pages up to comfort us, he was followed by Cllr (Slugger) Church who waded in even deeper only a day or two later to lecture us all on the environmental credentials of the Council's fountain using recycled water in it's operation, after suggestions were made that it may be wasteful if it used fresh water.
Meanwhile most punters according to the Chron and Echo seemed to be both underwhelmed and unimpressed with the said fountain. Cllr David Palethorpe (Con) in particular entertained me today with a comment from one of his more well spoken Tory friends who expressed a view of the fountain in what he said was a rather posh accent and declared "I think I could lay on my back and p*ss higher than that" (more about that later!)
But for those not up to speed with the project, the bill so far for the whole scheme is in excess of £250,000 well over the original budget and despite the fountain costing only an estimated £98,000. The costs seem to have escalated after first the council finding out that they were digging in the wrong place for water! and then finding that the water wasn't draining away as it should be! and instead of refilling its feeder tank it was heading off to flood the nearby newsagents cellar! Further work has therefore been carried out this week to remove the recently laid granite sets around the fountain and replace them with additional gullies to improve the drainage.
So nothing more could go wrong could it?
And the new Mayor can sharpen her scissors ready for the ribbon cutting?
Well think again, and prepare yourself for an EXCLUSIVE! You see if anyone at the Council had bothered to do their homework, then they would have found out that a very similar project in 2008 with a "very similar" fountain from a company called "Invent Water" had run into very similar problems and delays down on the East Coast! More's the point some of the additional problems which troubled the Cllrs of Clacton have yet to hit the Lib Dem group on Northampton Borough Council because they didn't fully occur until after the Clacton fountain had officialy beenopened!You see Cllr Church's premature pride in the fountains use of "recycled water" may just come back to haunt him!
And his ghost will be called "Cryptosporidiosis"
In Clacton you see, once the fountain finally spurted forth, the local kids revelled in the opportunity to run through the water jets to cool themselves down on a hot summers day, as I am sure some of us hoped would be the case on the Market Square in Northampton. But in Clacton (unlike Cllr Church) they forgot that the water like ours was recycled!! Which meant that the contents of the said water jets included dilutions of pigeon droppings, dog fouling, urinating drunkards and vomiting party goers, all of which were then being ingested by the little darlings as the ran through the spray! Health experts gave warning to the Council as to the dangers and the localy elected of the Borough scratched their heads. Filtration was not possible without huge additional cost, an underground tank room, and constant montoring and maintenence cost and would have led to the whole fountain being dug up again and replaced with a hugely expensive cleansing headache for the Council.
The problem it seems is particularly acute in fountains which spurt water upwards in areas where children who are most at risk from such water borne pathogens (those under16) who may ingest or swallow the water due to their height and also the height of the water jets. The Northampton fountain we are told spurts from one foot to five foot! This danger is all well documented in guidance issued since major outbreak in the UK in 2003 and 2006 with many children hospitilised. http://www.whtlimited.com/doc/lib/158/interactive-play-water-features.pdf The only option therefore left for Clacton Councillors was to admit defeat after much cost and more than a few red faces and turn off and fence off the fountain to the public at even further
expense to the Council tax payer.
Then after further complaints from residents about the fencing, they had to spend more money taking the fencing away and on installing expensive motion sensitive cameras and automatic switches which can detect any little darlings getting too close to the action and turn the water on and off as the public approach!
http://www.clactonandfrintongazette.co.uk/news/localnews/5036618.Thousands_more_cash_for_Clacton_fountain/?ref=rss
£3.2m was the final bill for the council tax payers of Clacton (Tendring District Council)
But I am sure our council has all these eventualities covered?
Come on Tony - we are post General Election now and looking at the 'big' issues locally in the town. We all know the problem / potential problems with the fountain. What we need is someone to show us the answers / way forward. You are right - we need to know the truth but we are looking for answers too from our potential 'leaders'
ReplyDeleteOver to you.
So how about the Local LibDem/Tory party taking a hint from their government and reintroducing committee style local government so they didn't keep ballsing up everything on their own?
ReplyDeleteIts nice for you to call me a political leader! but on both councils I am treated at best as a nuisance! I would love to serve my town, and help the Council (whatever it's colour) to not make mistakes. But someone has to invite me to the table instead of continually screwing up and them moaning when we point out to them their shocking errors!
You don't honestly think that local politics is going to follow the National model? Cooperation, that's only a convenience thing, forced upon the Libs and Cons by the electorate. No such thing has or will happen here - too much to lose for the greedies.
ReplyDeleteNormal party politics resumes and the only way forward is to continue to be a pain in the posterior of the 'slugger' Church and his buddies who continue to run the town down the 'drain'
I am not totally convinced that the answer to this and other problems are committees!
ReplyDeleteAnonymous - how does that help? Good use of the word 'drain' but it doesnt take us any further forward.
Myself and others are looking for answers and solutions - come on Tony, how would you deal with this issue?
Well the first thing I would do irrespective of what noises were coming out of Whitehall is to campaign for a Unitary Council for Northampton nd end the farce of incapable members sitting on both councillors just to make the numbers up.
ReplyDeleteI would also campaign for an elected Mayor for the town and stand in any such contest.
In the meantime I would take the offer given by the new government to end Cabinet Style Local Government and go back to committees where at least officers had to explain their crazy schemes to all sides of the Council instead of relying on simply hoodwinking the Leader and their cronies.
I would publish (in the press) the attendence and speaking records of every Councillor so their electorates can judge their value and worth
I would then call a Summit of business and community leaders in the town and seek their involvement in projects which would attract both new business and vistors to the town and also to showcase their work.
An apt example of this is Haddenstone who wanted to help the Council by donating a stone fountain for the Market Square but were ignored by the powers that be.
The fountain may seem to be a small issue for some but is a good example of how we get so many other things wrong. Just imagine if the Council had a) taken Haddenstone up on their offer b) got the university involved in the design of the feature c) sought addition subscription from local businesses to the scheme d) Put the fountain in the centre of the square where it belongs and not at the gateway!
Then I would have breakfast and prepare for a full day of similar intervention!!!
IndepenDENSE - Unfortunately those who stand up to Church and his cronies are shouted down or worse but because they hold the reins, albeit not so tightly now, they still manage to vote things through. So the only way forward for the time being is to keep highlighting their woeful inadequacy, with a view to keeping people reminded that they must do something about it at the local elections. That's all really that indivuals can do.
ReplyDeleteMind you does it really matter what any of these politicians do? All one has to do is look at the example of Loakes/Labour in Northampton South. Did nothing - didn't want to be here and still got 10,000 + votes. It does seem sometimes that people want to be walked all over or perhaps they just can't be bothered anymore!
I honestly don't know what the answer is - try your best perhaps and you can't really be faulted.