Did cost cutting speed up decay of South Holland Centre?

Essential maintenance work has begun on the South Holland Centre – work that could be the result of cost-cutting during a £2.5m revamp 20 years ago.

Amid criticism from a number of parties that in the 1990s South Holland District Council cut corners to reduce costs, proof of downgrading specifications and removing items of work at the time has come to light.

This may have resulted in £250,000 of works being required prematurely on the centre.

In 2003, Hallamshire Construction PLC, the project managers of the revamp that opened 20 years ago, took South Holland District Council to court over a contract dispute.

In the documents of the High Court ruling, there is repeated reference to the council instructing the quantity survey to amend agreed orders to cut back on cost.

According to the documents, the first phase of remodelling and refurbishment at the South Holland Centre was to be carried out for approximately £1,037,000.

It continues: “The work was carried out and the claimant was delayed and disrupted.”

To proceed with the second “fitting-out” phase, a new revised plan was drawn up.

The ruling continues: “The total cost was unacceptable to the defendant (the council). In consequence, the claimant and the consultants started an exercise of revision of the bills of quantities to produce reduced costs.

“This exercise involved, so the arbitrator found, removing certain items of work from the bills, downgrading the specification in certain respects, reducing some of the prices and correcting errors within the bills.”

It reiterates: “This included the processes of omission, specification change and re-rating.

“Further revisions of work items, rates, prices, drawings and specification items were envisaged and these would be achieved by varying the scope of work and its cost as these stood on July 16 1997.”

The Voice asked the council for details of the downgraded specifications and items of work removed at the time but these haven’t been provided, along with the list of works currently scheduled to take place.