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Town council receives Victoria Park cracks information but public still in the dark





Despite the council spending thousands of pounds in an attempt to find the root cause of the cracks, residents are for the time being in the dark as to the content of Costain’s report.
A statement released by Newbury Town Council this week confirmed a formal response had been received from Costain but that an agreement between the council and the contractor meant the council was unable to publish the report due to information that could be “commercially sensitive.”
Leader of the Council, Julian Swift-Hook stressed that measures were being taken to seek to publish the Costain report but would not be drawn on exactly when this might happen.
He said: “We needed the information so that’s what we had to agree to. We are working on getting agreement to publish the report, but have not yet been successful.”
The council’s statement also failed to reveal if Costain had accepted any liability.
Mr Swift-Hook added: “I can’t speculate on when, or even if, agreement will be reached, but everyone at Newbury Town Council is working as hard as they can to bring this to a conclusion.”
The saga started when in 2010, cracks and subsidence appeared across Victoria Park shortly after water extraction works were being undertaken by Costain to build Parkway’s multi-storey car park.
Sports amenities in Victoria Park suffered including the football pitches, which have remained closed for two years, the tennis courts and Newbury Bowls club all seeing their facilities affected. Victoria Park Nursery also claimed earlier this year to have spent £50,000 of savings reserved for new play equipment on repairing cracks and subsidence on it’s site.
Costain, however, repeatedly said the damage had been caused by the then unusually dry weather. The cost so far incurred by the taxpayer has soared above £24,000 - £9,000 of which was for the hydrogeological survey commissioned by the town council.
In July, the council issued Costain an ultimatum - ‘give us the facts or face legal action’ - but failed to make good on this promise, to the dismay of local residents this week.
Among them is Newbury resident Allan Mercado, who has repeatedly questioned the town council’s handing of the issue.
“The council agreed to spend £10,000 to carry out a hydrogeological survey two years ago,” said Mr Mercado. “That’s our money. They agreed to spend it, but there has been no action.
“Quite frankly I wonder if Costain is having a laugh because they know that the council does not have the finances to take them to court.”
Newbury Labour spokesman Mr Richard Garvie also thinks it is high-time the documents became public knowledge.
He said: "It’s absolutely ridiculous. Anyone that lives in Newbury will want to know the cause of the cracks and they want that information now, not in six months time.”
But Mr Swift-Hook insisted : “It is important to do this right, not quickly.
“I understand the frustrations of Newbury residents but we have to abide by the legal restrictions which are preventing us from publishing full details.”
Costain has so far failed to comment.



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