Th, Oct 27, 2005Council paid a fortune to keep the Turkish Bath closed
Lewisham Council paid £ 90,790 to keep our Turkish Bath facility at the Ladywell Leisure Centre closed.This is the latest incredible finding of our investigation into Lewisham Council's malpractice.
Here's the answer we received at yesterday's full Council:
Question
How much has the Council paid the Ladywell Leisure Centre contractors for loss of income generated by the closure of the Sauna and Turkish Bath since those facilities closed?
Reply
The sauna has been closed since 1999, therefore no loss of income payments have been made to the Contractor. Since the site re opened in June 2004 a total of £90,790 has been paid, up until August 2005, in respect of the Turkish Baths Suite.
Cornered into admitting this staggering expenditure for nothing, they thought that it was a good idea to also add to the answer an estimate for the pipe-work required.
The cost of reinstating the Turkish bath and Sauna would certainly exceed the sum shown above. No detailed costings were obtained, but informed estimates put the sum at between £350k- £400k.
This is particularly interesting as they had managed until now to avoid to give out any figure about it.
In our supplementary question we expressed disbelief for this extraordinary estimate for some pipe-works and we asked the Mayor to allow an independent expert to access the site in order to make a credible estimate for the work.
The Mayor said that he will come back to us on that. ...read more...