£5,000 a week costs to Shire Hall delays

Council officers are getting frustrated at the delay in erecting the scaffolding around Shire Hall, which is costing tax payers £5,000 a week.

Contractors have been unable to erect scaffold in Beaufort Square because the landowners are refusing to give their consent.

Council staff and contractors have been working hard for the past week to try to resolve the situation so that work can begin, but the Beaufort Management Company are refusing to budge.

Already, in an effort to move things forward, council officers have agreed to alter the scaffolding design at a cost of £51,000 and an offer to replace two sash windows at a cost of £3,000.  This has been done in an effort to accommodate the wishes of the Beaufort Management Company who are demanding £5,000 a week in the event that the scaffolding is not removed by the end of December 2009.

Deb Hill-Howells, Head of Estate Management said:

"Given the magnitude of the project, and the fact that we are dealing with a grade one listed building, probably Monmouthshire's most important building, we are not in a position to guarantee when scaffolding will come down as we do not know what we will find when work begins."

Steve Greenslade, Corporate Director of Regeneration, Environment and Resources said:

"We have a duty to protect public money which has come not only from Monmouthshire County Council, but from the Heritage Lottery Fund.  We have been more than accommodating in our dealings with the Beaufort Management Company and they are putting the project in jeopardy."