Marina Neglect

[craig finton]

I wonder why it hasn't occurred to Mr AB that the £100,000+ he plans to spend on consultants for his 'vision' would go a long way to rectifying the current appalling state of the Marina if it was instead spent on maintenance and a tin of paint.

[norfolkngoode]

That seems very logical Craig.......

Unfortunately logic, and indeed any sense of reality, are things that completely escape the council, when it comes to spending our money.

[steveL]

I think the state of the Marina and the Wingfield Castle typifies the culture within HBC. Over the years there have been quite a few lumps of money injected into the town by different Governments on various schemes and HBC have been happy to take the money and hail it as 'a new beginning'. However, when the pot of money is used up and changes have been made they invariably walk away with no maintenance plan in place. As a result, it's only a matter of time before decay sets in again.

Spion Kop is a good example but there are plenty of others scattered around town. The money is Government money but the subsequent maintenance has to come out of revenue and the present lot always have other self-serving, priorities.

In the case of the Marina, HBC has the perfect excuse of saying that the responsibility lies elsewhere and they seem to be quite happy for it to stay that way even when it's obvious to all that 'the jewel in the crown' has lost its sparkle.

[Land Phil]

Name one project the council has been involved in that has had follow up maintenance ...I can't.

[DRiddle]

MRA?

[Jamescampbell78]

I'm fairly certain that the problem isn't the lack of planning, more that those who've planned for future maintenance expenditure get told they no longer have that budget because the council is almost insolvent due to years of financial mismanagement.

[Land Phil]

Driddle, I take your point about MRA :-)

I was meaning that every little thing they do from a park bench to a bridge once put in place never gets as much as a lick of paint and then is thrown away when it falls to bits.

Isn't the bridge near the Steel Works now closed to lorries because of lack of maintenance ...probably explains why so many go along Seaton front these days.

The bench on the sea front dedicated to Mr Gardener, the long time caretaker of Seaton school fell to bits and was discarded.  Seeing that put me off donating a bench myself.

[marky]

That's just so true. I suppose simply 'looking after' things doesn't get the headlines or the photo-opportunities but it's 'looking after things' that most people think HBC should be doing. Once they do that then they can start having 'visions'.

[stokoe]

Name one project the council has been involved in that has had follow up maintenance ...I can't.

I know its a new acquisition but the cafe in the crem is getting bags of money spent on it. The new shop extension will be open for easter most probably, wonder what that cost ?. All new block driveway lights etc. bet that gets maintained wonder why? sorry for going off post.

[marky]

The budget for it all was a cool £400,000.

[stokoe]

Was that for all the the garden centre shop,restrooms for the grave diggers showers etc etc,or just the cafe?

[steveL]

I'd say that was the full lot myself, not just the garden centre/café and probably why they sold the adjacent land for housing.

[Pwilson]

HBC just bounces from grant to grant.

Yet if you look at the application forms for various grants and government schemes they all ask questions about your longer term plans for sustainability. Clearly the answers HBC gave to such questions were lies or unrealistic aims.

[Inspector Knacker]

I'm fairly certain that the problem isn't the lack of planning, more that those who've planned for future maintenance expenditure get told they no longer have that budget because the council is almost insolvent due to years of financial mismanagement.

Maintenance is a dirty word in most organisations... I can vouch for that...it's seen as an irrelevance....it has no wow factor....it's just boring old maintenance... but the most important factor in the system.
The new project allows the wannabes to bask in its reflected glory.......... that catches their limited attention and they never look beyond it.

[mk1]

If you let a feature fall into disrepair then you can engineer a bit of free publicity every time repairs were carried out by claiming the credit for the work. Watch how a  certain councillor will trample over babes in arms in order  to get a photo  of himself beside the repiared Ward Jackson Fountain. If he plays his cards right he could 'repair' it again  next  time he is  up for re-election........