10 July 2007
In September 2006 the Council's Chief Executive Cheryl Coppell personally authorised (according to the Schedule of Significant Officer Decisions) the spending of an additional sum of £1 million of public money on Broom and Poplar Houses. Do you feel you could have done more in any of your roles as:
to have avoided the situation which was publicly catalogued in local newspapers as a non-stop disaster, an appalling calamity which caused disgraceful stress, anxiety and a vast multitude of problems for residents, was vastly over budget and required £1 million of emergency cash to be poured-in to keep the forlorn flats from sinking deeper into the abyss of abandonment and depths of despair and, if so, what useful and helpful advice would you give to other Councils and Councillors before they embark on schemes of a similar nature to what Cheryl Coppell has recently described in writing as "a modernisation failure"?
As I have stated on several previous occasions, the failure of the contractor, Dew Pitchmastic, to complete the improvement works at Broom and Poplar Houses was unacceptable and I have apologised to the residents of both buildings for the considerable discomfort and inconvenience caused. Since the departure of Dew Pitchmastic from the project, we have acted as quickly as possible to complete the remaining work and, as with every major project, will endeavour to ensure that our experiences inform our performance on similar future projects.
