Spending Other People's Money

[Beef Oven!]

A council that spent more than £111m on a new headquarters is considering moving out after just three years.

Newham Council bought Building 1000 for £92m in 2010 and spent a further £18.7m on a refurbishment. Designer light fittings alone cost £1,800 each!!!!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-24205638

[ahinton]

A council that spent more than £111m on a new headquarters is considering moving out after just three years.

Newham Council bought Building 1000 for £92m in 2010 and spent a further £18.7m on a refurbishment. Designer light fittings alone cost £1,800 each!!!!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-24205638

That's scandalous enough, but what about the £10bn+ and still rising (more than two year after being scrapped) cost of the NHS computerisation disaster? (see http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-24130684)

[teamsaint]

Anybody used the Salisbury Park and Ride White elephant?

Nope. Thought not.
Vanity, all is vanity.

Oh, and if you need Hampshire rescue services, don't bother calling this place....

http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/local/union-calls-for-action-over-hampshire-fire-control-centre-bill-1-2828506

[Mr Pee]

HS2.

[ahinton]

HS2.

An excellent example insofar as it goes although, fortunately, the vanishingly small proportion of the budget for this whitest of white elephants in the room that has so far been expended on it has been to fund the talking heads and unfeasibility studies of cloud-cuckoo-land, so I think that you would agree that it's hardly in the same league as those on which vast amounts have already been wasted.

[amateur51]

An excellent example insofar as it goes although, fortunately, the vanishingly small proportion of the budget for this whitest of white elephants in the room that has so far been expended on it has been to fund the talking heads and unfeasibility studies of cloud-cuckoo-land, so I think that you would agree that it's hardly in the same league as those on which vast amounts have already been wasted.

Whereas I've been droning on about the need for a new sewer system for the whole country since Year 2000 projects were first mooted.

[ahinton]

Whereas I've been droning on about the need for a new sewer system for the whole country since Year 2000 projects were first mooted.

Much of the ancient sewerage and water and gas pipework is crumbling and has been for years; it is also increasingly inadqaute to cope with current requirements, let alone those of the future. Some of it has been and is being replaced, piecemeal, by plastic pipework but I read somewhere (can't now recall where) several years ago that the cost of replacing the lot would be more than 3,000 times the eventual cost of building the Channel Tunnel (and it would not be hard to imagine the logistical mightmares that doing this under large cities would bring about). Like Mr Pee's example, only a tiny proportion of the requiwite sums has been spent on it to date and, in this particular instance, I cannot see it as a case of spending other people's money at all, since there aren't enough other people with enough money for this, essential though it will incresingly prove to be.

[Flosshilde]

Anybody used the Salisbury Park and Ride White elephant.

That could be fun

http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/patta...h-13694212.jpg

Of course, it's not a white elephant in the picture - they are too pampered & cosseted to provide rides.


With regard to Newham Council's HQ building - they've always been like that, even when I worked there over forty years ago.


And then there's this -

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/sep/22/london-super-sewer-cheaper-projects

[amateur51]

Much of the ancient sewerage and water and gas pipework is crumbling and has been for years; it is also increasingly inadqaute to cope with current requirements, let alone those of the future. Some of it has been and is being replaced, piecemeal, by plastic pipework but I read somewhere (can't now recall where) several years ago that the cost of replacing the lot would be more than 3,000 times the eventual cost of building the Channel Tunnel (and it would not be hard to imagine the logistical mightmares that doing this under large cities would bring about). Like Mr Pee's example, only a tiny proportion of the requiwite sums has been spent on it to date and, in this particular instance, I cannot see it as a case of spending other people's money at all, since there aren't enough other people with enough money for this, essential though it will incresingly prove to be.

Every now and then, the sewers of central London give off a burp and the pong is ... quite alarming! :yikes:

Mind you, the same thing happened in Aix and Marseille this summer :whistle:

[Beef Oven!]

HS2.

Absolutely!!!

[ahinton]

Absolutely!!!

Yes but, as I wrote earlier, it's not as though squillions have already been wasted on this as they have on other projects - and, frankly, if it all gradually dies a death I'll be as unsurprised as I'll be relieved. This is clearly something on which you, Mr Pee and I agree entirely.

[teamsaint]

Absolutely!!!

as a capital dwelling capitalist, what is your opinion of the very expensive Crossrail, Beefy?

I suppose we will at least get something for the money, unlike the NHS computer fiasco(s).

[Flosshilde]

Every now and then, the sewers of central London give off a burp and the pong is ... quite alarming! :yikes:

Mind you, the same thing happened in Aix and Marseille this summer :whistle:

Well, they're foreign, aren't they, so it's what you'd expect. It's what makes them so picturesque.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Free schools

[ahinton]

Free schools

...from what?...