Consultant becomes latest firm to get caught in the fiasco surrounding Rafael Vi帽oly鈥檚 Colchester scheme
Turner & Townsend has become the latest firm to be caught up in the fiasco surrounding Rafael Vi帽oly鈥檚 visual arts centre in Colchester after it emerged it will be taken off the scheme.
It is also understood that Mace, which last week was brought in to review the 拢26m scheme, which is 16 months late and 拢9m over budget, is being lined up to take on a construction management role.
T&T, which was acting as QS and project manager, lost the job following the dismissal of contractor Banner Holdings over complaints that work was behind schedule and sub-standard. It is now helping the council put together an 鈥渆vidence file鈥� in case of legal action from Banner, and is carrying out a handover process.
A Colchester council spokesperson said: 鈥淲ith Banner gone, it made sense to look at the people working on the project and it emerged that we were looking for a slightly different type of organisation.鈥�
Paul Smith, a Colchester councillor, said Mace was a 鈥渟trong contender鈥� to become construction manager.
Turner & Townsend managing director Bruce McAra said: 鈥淲e are helping to bring the current building contract to an orderly close.鈥�
Meanwhile, the council is pushing for an immediate, full-scale investigation into the scheme鈥檚 problems. Smith said: 鈥淎n awful lot of public money has been involved and we would like the public to know as soon as possible what鈥檚 gone wrong and make sure mistakes are not repeated.鈥� However, it is understood the other funding bodies involved are not in favour.
An initial technical report is expected by the first week of July.
No comments yet