Over budget Carnegie repair costs
Last updated 19:42, Thursday, 08 May 2008
THE COST and quality of repairs to Workington’s Carnegie Theatre roof is to be subject to an internal audit by Allerdale council.
Allerdale’s executive committee has also agreed to a change in its financial regulations after the job was allowed to run £60,000 over budget.
Questions have also been asked about the standard of the work and the fact that new tiles were used instead of recycled ones, which could have cut the cost of the work on the Finkle Street building.
The project was called in by the council’s scrutiny committee, which made five recommendations, all of which were approved by the executive committee on Wednesday.
As a result, changes have been made to the way large contracts are reported back to the council’s committees, and over-runs on contracts will now be reported immediately.
A slip-up in the contract also meant that it was not specified that the contractor should use recycled slates on the roof, which would be in character with the surrounding area.
The use of new tiles also added to the cost.
Nick Fardon, Allerdale’s head of legal services, said the price of the work had originally been estimated to be in the region of £200,000.”
He added: “Motivated by the fact that the bad weather was coming and the roof was leaking, it was agreed to get it fixed because the Carnegie is an important asset.”
But Mr Fardon said valuable lessons had been learned about the process and he believed the scrutiny committee had identified all the problems in what he described as a thorough investigation.
