The Green finally got a long overdue facelift and it looks generally great ... if you ignore a few parts ...
The plans were approved in June 2011 - the works were announced in November 2011, started in January 2012, and were due to be ready ahead of the Olympics ...
I know there were delays due to contamination, rain and what not. But I have not seen any movement in at least six months ...
But the parts that are finished ARE great.
Dear Council, can you push the contractors, can we get this finished as soon as possible? It does not look good at all.
UPDATE 21.03.13 [from Chris Underwood] - Local Top Tory Cllr Harry Phibbs saw this posting and decided to answer intrepid reporter Bart's query. It seems we're now looking at the end of May this year. Here's the word of the official looking after the Green - it seems that it's been tough for them to drain the various lakes that form the W12 marine ecosystem:
But the parts that are finished ARE great. Dear Council, can you push the contractors, can we get this finished as soon as possible? It does not look good at all.
UPDATE 21.03.13 [from Chris Underwood] - Local Top Tory Cllr Harry Phibbs saw this posting and decided to answer intrepid reporter Bart's query. It seems we're now looking at the end of May this year. Here's the word of the official looking after the Green - it seems that it's been tough for them to drain the various lakes that form the W12 marine ecosystem:
"I am sure you are aware that the weather has not been kind in terms of completing this project (2012 was the 2nd wettest year in recorded history!).However Officers have been working hard with the contractor FM Conway Ltd. In particular over the past few months, various options to improve the drainage (such as underground tile drains, aeration, etc.) on the unfinished sections have been explored. It was decided that aeration was the most efficient and suitable solution and this began yesterday. As the unturfed areas are still quite wet, a smaller aeration machine was used on the newly laid turf areas where ponding and flooding was evident. Once completed, the areas appeared to free drain and the flooding/ponding disappeared.So now you know. Well done to Bart and many thanks as ever to Harry.
The contractor returned to site today to use the small machine on the extents of the large area to relieve some of the ponding. This has made a difference to the worst areas and should enable the soil to dry out sufficiently to allow a larger machine to be used sometime next week.
Once sufficiently drained, the areas will be prepared and immediately turfed. We are pushing hard and hopeful that the Green will be completed by the end of May".
And while they are at it get a grip of United Utilities who have scarred the Bush for way to long now. I contacted them and suggested that as they have caused so much inconvenience, they should put something back into the community to compensate. They were absolutely disinterested in the suggestion.
ReplyDeleteI think Bart's being pretty generous with his assessment of the work that has been completed. Frankly, other than the improved playground, I can't see that the rest of the work adds up to a great deal; IMHO it looks hard to justify the enormous and seemingly endless disruption created, let alone the vast cost. Maybe this sounds curmudgeonly ... but there are clearly others who seem to share this opinion as you can see in this forum thread responding to Carol Burge's question "What exactly has been done?" http://goo.gl/xV7Ft
ReplyDeleteAlso, very good of Cllr Harry Phibbs to keep those of us who subscribe to this blog informed - but what about the rest of the borough? The councils own webpage "Shepherds Bush Common Improvement Project - Keeping residents informed of the project's progress" http://goo.gl/ijiOq hasn't been updated since last November!
It's worthwhile noting that the key reason the ground in this location has been compacted is the repeated use of the space for the fun fair. Adequate remedial work was never undertaken by the Council after each event. This means that money saved then - is costing more money now. Not smart!
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