Time-wasting?
14/12/08 17:54 Filed in: News
Last week after a bit of vehicular ballet on South
Grove with an Argos delivery van I thought I should
try to find out if there had been any progress in
persuading Bovis (the hospital contractor) to move
some vehicles off the Groves and onto the mostly
empty United Utilities carpark.
I had a phone conversation and swapped some emails with Andy Wilson, our Ward Coordinator. He had checked if UU were still willing to share their carpark (they are) and had spoken to Peter Beese at Bovis who, however, seemed to be reluctant to do anything. He said most of the vehicles actually belong to sub-contractors and he couldn’t force them to move, and besides a lot of the work finishes in June. A figure of £4 a day to park at UU also seems to have appeared from somewhere. My understanding from when I spoke to UU was that there may be a minor administration charge, but that was all. I think out of a £50 million contract, Bovis could pick that up, and that sub-contractors if approached would be willing to park in a secure area, for free, closer to their work, and in the knowledge that they would no longer be causing problems to local residents. Simple.
I get the feeling Bovis are playing for time. Even if a lot of the work finishes in June, that still leaves 6 months of disruption for us. (By that time we might nearly have our parking scheme anyway, but there will still be regular contractors, such as the operating theatre services whose vans park here, and staff and visitors looking to avoid the hospital car-park charges.) Do we need to up the ante a bit to persuade them to take some action? Any suggestions?
Our situation is due to be featured on a video being made by the Transport Pool, part of the Community Network for Manchester. Filming is next week. More news when I have it.
Paul K.
I had a phone conversation and swapped some emails with Andy Wilson, our Ward Coordinator. He had checked if UU were still willing to share their carpark (they are) and had spoken to Peter Beese at Bovis who, however, seemed to be reluctant to do anything. He said most of the vehicles actually belong to sub-contractors and he couldn’t force them to move, and besides a lot of the work finishes in June. A figure of £4 a day to park at UU also seems to have appeared from somewhere. My understanding from when I spoke to UU was that there may be a minor administration charge, but that was all. I think out of a £50 million contract, Bovis could pick that up, and that sub-contractors if approached would be willing to park in a secure area, for free, closer to their work, and in the knowledge that they would no longer be causing problems to local residents. Simple.
I get the feeling Bovis are playing for time. Even if a lot of the work finishes in June, that still leaves 6 months of disruption for us. (By that time we might nearly have our parking scheme anyway, but there will still be regular contractors, such as the operating theatre services whose vans park here, and staff and visitors looking to avoid the hospital car-park charges.) Do we need to up the ante a bit to persuade them to take some action? Any suggestions?
Our situation is due to be featured on a video being made by the Transport Pool, part of the Community Network for Manchester. Filming is next week. More news when I have it.
Paul K.
|