Time to map out a plan for Villa's future
- Says blogger Matthew Turvey
Showpiece fountain delayed again
Tuesday 31st March 2009, 11:30AM BST.
A long-awaited project to transform Wolverhampton’s main square with a new showpiece fountain has been delayed yet again, it has emerged today.
Regeneration bosses had hoped the new £300,000 centrepiece could be unveiled in April – already eight months later than originally planned.
But it has now emerged that the development in Queen Square will not be complete until June.
The project has been hit by a series of delays due to the discovery of a complicated network of underground pipes.
Councillor Malcolm Gwinnett, chairman of Wolverhampton City Council’s planning committee, said: “I had been told that the fountain was all on target to be complete in the spring but have now been informed it will not be ready until June.
“I believe the problems caused by all of the underground pipes is the reason behind the delays and slowing down the work.
“I have been assured it will definitely be ready this time but it is becoming a bit of a joke. It will be a great asset when it is ready but it has gone on for far too long.”
He said an investigation was set to be launched once the work finished to look into why it took so long to complete.
The fountain structure is finally starting to take shape after heavy blocks of polished granite were lowered into the site.
Curved walls of granite which will form the foundation of the water feature have already been put in place. The fountain will feature two pools of water on different levels split by a walkway and lit up with flashing LED lights.
An underground tank, which holds thousands of litres of water, was installed just before Christmas.
Bright green hoardings which blocked the site for months were taken down in December to reveal a bare site which was covered in Tarmac to allow for Christmas celebrations to be staged.
The surfacing was then ripped up for the project to re-start in January.
The project is part of wider plans to create a cafe culture in the city centre.
Council leader Neville Patten has also said he wants to pedestrianise the area by re-routing buses away from Queen Square.
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What a waste of money. Did they forget there were toilets under there before !!
There is a fountain in St Peters gardens. I would rather they spent my rates on speed calming and the local schools than another fountian.
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oooh!!!! cant wait, a nice new over budget fountain months behind schedule, just what is needed as wolverhampton city centre dies a little more daily.
there are more boarded up shops than open ones and its become a total joke, still, the fountain will be a nice place for the goths to dump their rubbish into.
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Sounds like a lack of planning.
If the civil servants behind these projects had even half the business nous of a private sector buyer these things might….just for once, be on time and on budget.
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Yet again, another example of Labour mess that the Tories are having to clear up!
Don’t believe me, Freedom of Information allows you to check which party planned this.
I suspect the public will blame the Tories for this mess, yet they are the one’s who are holding the broom.
P.S. Roger Lawrence, what ever happened to the £5 Million share dividend that you and your Labour cronies promised in the budget last year. Yet another mess that Wolves Tories were left to clean up!
Shame on you!!!
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Yet another mess that Labour have left for the Tories! Don’t believe me, why not take a look into which party began this project. You can request this info through Freedom of Information.
Oh and while we are on the subject, I would like to know what happened to the £5 Million that Wolves Labour put in their budget last year as a special dividend from Birmingham Airport. Wolves Tories have been left to sort that mess out also! C’mon Roger Lawrence, show me the money!!!
Yet this year, the Tories have given the smallest council tax increase in Wolverhampton in 15 YEARS.
I know who I would rather have in control.
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At least we’ll have something noce to look at whilst the shops in the city are boarded up!!!
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You lot are only happy when there’s something to moan about.
The money isn’t a waste at all, it goes in to the pockets of the builders who are building it. They then spend the money in the shops helping to keep them open.
Little projects like this, as well as refurbishing the old buildings and laying down new paving is improving the city.
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ref comment 7: the shops are closing so rapidly its embarrassing, take a walk around the mander centre and count the empty shops, some (our price) has been closed since 2004. another six months and there will be hardly any left.
the builders are spending their money at the merry hill centre.
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I suppose it will be fine when it’s done. I’m afraid you have to take politics out of this sort of project for it to work. Petty political point scoring is pathetic, the city needs this. JB Priesley said we should have fountains everywhere and he was right they add to the asthetics of the place. When this one is finished I think we should go in for another right in the middle of Dudley Street, a big one. Then after that how about a huge one outside the civic centre. Oh and possibly a large gravity working one on the ring road. More fountains please!
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Surely then the problem isn’t local, it is national!
Clearly we need a change of government. Not the wasteful bunch of unaccountable spendthrifts that we have at the moment.
The people of Wolverhampton spoke out locally last May by getting rid of “New Labour” Lets hope we do it again next year to get rid of One Eyed Brown!
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God help us if they ever have something difficult to do !!
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They all talk about wolverhampton being tidyed up is to blow up the city I left wolverhampton seven years ago to live abroad and I returned to vist and boy what did I find filth every where chaple ash the old charles clark place there was no windows in the place by the bus station chewing gum ground in the pavments that just two I could go on now I will leave up to the people to deal with
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Hush up you bunch of miseries! I think it will be beautiful once done. It’s a shame it’s public funded when the Lottery has loads of spare cash and gets wasted on orchestras and opera for the privileged few.
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Mike_Wolves: A Labour supporter I take it. It will take more than a few builders buying bacon sandwiches in the morning, to have any financial effect on the town.
I suppose the next over budget project will be the statue of a bloody tramp.
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I’ll give it a couple of weeeks when opened before some toerags plaster if with grafitti.
That area is renowed for the number of goths and students hanging around.
At least they’ll have a nice shiny wall to sit on……
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It’s going to take a lot more than a fountain to make Wolverhampton look attractive – a bit like putting lipstick on a bulldog and then pretending it looks gorgeous
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I think that the fountain when finished will be excellent, it’s a pity that the space was allowed last year to be used by the contractors as privelidged storage & car parking. the council should never have let it happen or the contractors should jhave been charged very high parking & storage charges
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