Tuesday 14 June 2011

Crowborough Community Centre.





Details of the Community Centre project are seeping out slowly.Like a leaking sewerage pipe what is seeping out has a bit of a smell about it.

For our £3.5million you would expect a state of the art facility with no corners cut but unfortunately the whole project is being run by people who to quote Alan Sugar just don't have a "bloody clue" so I think our expectations are a bit optimistic to say the least.Alan Hooper who is nominally the Director and Secretary of CCA2010 has admitted all the figures are just guesswork and no one has actually seen the business plan or accounts of the project.It would appear that Hooper is just a useful idiot character whose job is to divert the flak from the people who are actually pulling the strings.When it all goes tits up ,as it will eventually,who do we think will get the blame Alan Hooper or Chantal Wilson who is the Chairman of CCA 2010 and wife of poor old Clive (dunn) Wilson.

So lets see what we are getting for the same price as a boat like the one pictured above.

Lovely wooden roof support beams? -Not a chance they are concrete.

Air conditioning for those hot balmy summer days-Not a chance.Open the windows.

Kitchen on the ground floor-Not a chance.Plating up area only.

Super duper heating system-Not a chance commercial gas fired heating.

Huge Car Park-Nope.A few parking spaces for cripples and staff only.

Theatre suitable for professional shows-No only suitable for amateur productions.


So there you have it the community centre which will be a concrete structure with no luxuries is going to cost the same as a state of the art luxurious boat shown above.I know they cant be compared really because one is huge waste of money and the other is a luxurious boat but its a fair illustration of what £3.5 million excluding VAT will buy.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

For a similar cost, Crowborough could have had a proper hall, on a better site with adequate parking adjacent. It would have had a main hall seating 500/600 people (but still sub-divisible for smaller functions) a large stage, air conditioning, proper catering facilities, seating etc. etc... The seating capacity of the hall is vital - if you can`t get enough "bums on seats" you cannot generate the required income to pay for performances/attractions that a rapidly growing town of 20,000 plus (with a catchment area in excess of 100,000 within 10 miles)needs. The Town Council commissioned a report (at considerable cost!) which clearly proved that anything less was futile.

Captain Swing said...

Thanks for your comment.
I cannot get my head round the fact that what is being built is going to cost £3.5 million. When you consider the land was obtained for next to nothing this figure looks even more outrageous.
There are persistent rumours that the Assembly hall in Tunbridge Wells is closing so a decent sized hall with professional kit could have been a financial success.As always the town council dropped the ball but what do they care because they have the luxury of being able to extract even more money from the taxpayers of the town which is a luxury a commercial business doesnt have.

Unknown said...

Interesting post, won't lie to you that I understand where you come from. But I did understand few things although. The comment from the anonymous person was also very instructive.

man and van London

Unknown said...

Interesting post, won't lie to you that I understand where you come from. But I did understand few things although. The comment from the anonymous person was also very instructive.

man and van London

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