Public reports pack PDF 6 MB - East Lindsey District Council

APPENDIX AFinancial IssuesA £500k bond had been recommended at the start of the tenderingprocess but, with the agreement of East Lindsey, only £300k wastaken out by the main contractor. The bond was put in place as aninsurance against the contractor not being able to complete theworks.East Lindsey District Council is still actively pursuing a claim torecover £300k. Evidence has been submitted to claim £575kadditional costs, not only cash costs but legitimate officer time.£90k has been spent dealing with defects that UCS Civils wouldhave been responsible for. The full cost of dealing with defects willbe known shortly.If the £300k bond is returned the project will be within its budgetand it is hoped that this issue will be resolved by the end of thefinancial year.OpeningThe Meridian Leisure Centre was scheduled to open at the end ofDecember 2009 but due to the 8 week delay was put back to the 6February 2010.Memberships were available on general sale prior to the leisurecentre opening; Members that had signed up prior to the facilityopening were also able to undertake their induction to allow them touse the centre on its first day of opening. This resulted in highnumbers of users within the first few days of trading.Some parts of the building work were being completed once theleisure centre was open for business. As a result of this, stafftraining time was limited and meant that members of staff had todeal with customers whilst still learning.Both the café and the nursery were marketed by an agent but itwas considered this was left too late to get them let. As asubsequence the kitchen fitters in the café were working up untilthe opening date to get the kitchen ready.One issue that is still to be resolved is that the Building CompletionCertificate has not yet been issued due to the noise and echo levelsin the café area being too high. It is hoped that sound absorptionmaterials will alleviate this problem in the near future.12Page 28