Newbury Town Council are saying that it will cost £40,000 to erect a fence around the new play facility in Victoria Park. I just can't believe that the figure quoted is realistic.
Have they got their decimal points in the wrong place? Or are they using the wrong contractors?
They also need some lights and a CCTV camera to keep the vandals off.
Newbury Town Council are saying that it will cost £40,000 to erect a fence around the new play facility in Victoria Park. I just can't believe that the figure quoted is realistic.
Have they got their decimal points in the wrong place? Or are they using the wrong contractors?
They also need some lights and a CCTV camera to keep the vandals off.
You think it would cost £4,000 to erect a child-safe fence round the play area?
Newbury Town Council are saying that it will cost £40,000 to erect a fence around the new play facility in Victoria Park. I just can't believe that the figure quoted is realistic.
Have they got their decimal points in the wrong place? Or are they using the wrong contractors?
You haven't factored in the cost of the consultants, preparing a risk assesment and then finding the appropriate specialist children's fencing contractor from somewhere north of Birmingham.
This lot would do it for about £13,000 including VAT based on 60 metres of fencing, a pedestrian gate and installation into grass.. Once you've factored in the cost of the health and safety consultants/inspections etc. etc. say £20,000. Then add £10K 'cause it's Newbury (like Tesco do for petrol - 5p a litre less from them in Wales recently) and you're well on your way to £40K....
They're charging nigh on £300 per installed 1.8 mtr wooden picket fence panel. Haven't bought wood for ages but would that be about £50 materials cost, even if was bought retail? Love the fact that they promote the wood as being 'machine planed', incidentally. Maybe that accounts for the rip off prices.
PS given the boggy nature of the park, perhaps installation into grass isn't an option so you have to pay another £10K for concrete footings?
£40K is beginning to look like a bargain, but can anything be truly vandal proof? Here's the fist hit in a search for vandal proof fences: http://goo.gl/3LsGG
The play area had a fence surrounding it that appeared to be in good condition, not broken/fallen down with a working gate. The play area has not moved so why wasn't the original fence kept?
Yes, it is further down the park to make way for the WBC vanity project, the Pavilion.
There's no serious prospect that this will go ahead, is there? I don't know anyone at all who is in favour it and just about everything connected with the scheme seems very poorly thought through indeed. The displacement of the Waterside centre seems particularly brainless, but building such an inappropriate building on our park when there are empty brownfield sites all over town is simply insane. If I didn't know better I'd assume some bribery was involved as it seems the only possible explanation. That can't be the case, of course.
I hope that if anyone is daft enough to suggest that the idea is resurrected there will huge apolitical campaign against it. We have the means at our disposal. The Radio 4 'Outside Westminster' programme you can find here http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b012w9sp#synopsis provides some useful pointers and hopefully the localism bill will also help to stop the crazed Cartergrad apparatchicks in their tracks.
Why the heck does anyone think that this thing, in this place, is a good idea?
There's no serious prospect that this will go ahead, is there?
I hope you're right but somehow I feel sure that WBC will not let go of their vision so easily. Methinks they will slip it in with the Wharf plans and that any public consultation will ask leading questions so that they get the answers they want.
I hope you're right but somehow I feel sure that WBC will not let go of their vision so easily. Methinks they will slip it in with the Wharf plans and that any public consultation will ask leading questions so that they get the answers they want.
Am I right in thinking that both UselessLibdems (as they now officially call themselves, I gather) and the NastyPartyTories are in favour of wrecking the park?
If so, what are we to do? You'd think the Newbury Society would be against park wrecking, but it's not at all clear from their website whether or not they are. In fact, amazingly, their site only makes three (3) mentions of the word 'Victoria'!!
Does anyone know what their view is on this? Are they, like so many others, in Comrade Carter's pocket? If so perhaps we need a new, more militant, Newbury Society - the Real Newbury Society, perhaps?
For the record, on the whole I'm in favour of most of the Vision. I even, shock horror, think Parkway will be a Good Thing. But why on earth dig up the Wharf Car park and fill it with water (crazily expensive) while building on the park opposite? Much better to build the pavilion, if we're forced to have one, next to the library as others have suggested. Or just extend the library - they really could do with some more space. I'll start a new thread with a poll on that very point.
It seems that the old saying, "you can't please all of the people all of the time " has some relevance here. There are it appears, two facebook groups, one group wants the play area fenced, the other group are against a fence. The lady who seems to be the spokesperson for the former can only take one of her children to the park at a time as she only has one pair of eyes hence the pro fence lobby. Newbury Town Council say they will listen to all the proposals. So, whoever wins will leave an equal number of disappointed park users. I suspect they divide neatly into the ones with kids group and the other, the without kids group.
Perhaps as a compromise they could just put a fence half way around the play area?
Do away with the play area as it is causing controversey? It would then not cause disruption and noise for the wine imbibers in the Arts Centre Pavillion Pigeon Loft nearby!
It seems that the old saying, "you can't please all of the people all of the time " has some relevance here. There are it appears, two facebook groups, one group wants the play area fenced, the other group are against a fence. The lady who seems to be the spokesperson for the former can only take one of her children to the park at a time as she only has one pair of eyes hence the pro fence lobby. Newbury Town Council say they will listen to all the proposals. So, whoever wins will leave an equal number of disappointed park users. I suspect they divide neatly into the ones with kids group and the other, the without kids group.
LOL, a parent who can only look atfter one child at a time? What does she do when out & about at places other than the park? Leave one child at home all the time?
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