Changing Rooms...at a cost.
 

Hyndburn Borough Council have ear maked £40,000 to be spent on tarting up the council's offical meeting room at the Town Hall, because they get 'embarrassed' when visiting dignatories arrive because it hasn't been decorated since 1974.

£40,000 for one room?

Who are they getting in to decorate it, Laurence Llewelyn Bowen?


http://www.blackburncitizen.co.uk/ne...ur_blushes.php

Re: Changing Rooms...at a cost.
 

obviously going to be decorated in gold leaf!!! what a joke, where the hell do they get figures like this from??????

Re: Changing Rooms...at a cost.
 

Plus, it's not even used any more as the council meetings are all held over at Scaitcliffe house. Will they start using it after it's been done?

Re: Changing Rooms...at a cost.
 

woodchip paper 1 quid a roll and 15 quid per 10 liters of decent emulsion

sounds to me this is a few hundred quid to a decorator and a lot of thousands going into somones back pocket


our council is supposed to be un debt and they have trhe bloody nerve to threaten people with bailifs when all they do is wate money like this

when they owned teh council houses i knoew somone who was given a 75 quid grant to ecorate a full house :mad:

Re: Changing Rooms...at a cost.
 

Derry Irving revisited? :D

It is a ridiculous waste of money.

Re: Changing Rooms...at a cost.
 

So which budgets have been trimmed for this to happen? They cant clean the streets properly but a 40k bill for a bit of "jazzing up" seems ok to them. Bonkers absolutely bonkers.

Re: Changing Rooms...at a cost.
 

That's what I thought.:rolleyes:

At least HBC aren't going to use hand printed wall paper at £1,500 a roll...hopefully.

Re: Changing Rooms...at a cost.
 

Thats disgusting, whats worse is the idiots at HBC are allowed to spend money in this way, is there anything the public can do to complain about this?

Re: Changing Rooms...at a cost.
 

No, and you won't even get to see it.;)

The plans look simply fabulous though.:eek: :D

http://www.grassroots.net.nz/travell...NI2/ni2_18.jpg

Re: Changing Rooms...at a cost.
 

Apparently, I've been informed, all the council meetings are held in the chamber - so it's used regularly.

Also, it's not £40k, it's about £16k - don't believe everything you read in the papers.

Re: Changing Rooms...at a cost.
 

Apparently the rest of the £40k is for the roof, which would need doing either way.

Re: Changing Rooms...at a cost.
 

Yes councillors of all parties are saying in the press how it needs redecorating, mainly because they are embarrassed when people see it.

They need to sack their press officer if it is 'only' costing £16,000 for the makeover. It wouldn't have resulted in quite so shocking a headline.:D

Re: Changing Rooms...at a cost.
 

Well I think they were trying to use it the other way by saying it was a big investment in a public building.

Re: Changing Rooms...at a cost.
 

Although Graham Jones is quoted in this weekend's Observer as saying that the work to the room should be done only after the leaking roof is fixed, which it apparently isn't, and sounds a daft way of going about things to me, but fairly typical.

Re: Changing Rooms...at a cost.
 

I haven't read the Observer yet so can't comment on anything that's in it yet.

Re: Changing Rooms...at a cost.
 

Sixteen thousand is still a lot of money to spend on decorating a room because it 'embarrasses' you in front of guests.

Not a criticism of this council imparticular, but if a little had been spent on upkeep and maintenance since 1974, we wouldn't be looking at such a vast amount of money being spent now.

I hope they are getting two other quotes in besides the one from Laurence Llewelyn Bowen.;)

Re: Changing Rooms...at a cost.
 

If any of our local 'prop' bandits charged that kind of money for such a small job, they would be jailed for at least 3 years, why do they always talk in telephone numbers when Council cash is on offer? £40.000 pounds is a lot of money, personally I would like to see an itemised account of the spending on the job labour content, materials and inspection charges. I will bet any of you on this site the archetcts fees are the highest ones. Wink wink nod nod fold first finger right hand back.:rolleyes:

Re: Changing Rooms...at a cost.
 

Well in all fairness to them, I've been in there lately (just testing out the chairs for size you understand) and the room is very, very much in disrepair. Plus, if they've been saving money over the last thirty years, let's just say for example £500 per year, that's £15k anyway. So swings and roundabouts, do it bit by bit each year or do it all at once every thirty years!

Re: Changing Rooms...at a cost.
 

You can always request the paperwork and figures with the freedom of information act.

Re: Changing Rooms...at a cost.
 

And get a load of bulldung Gayle get real £40.000 for a 'toshing' job and a few oversized seats, can I have the job pl-----ease. Codswallop.

Re: Changing Rooms...at a cost.
 

If you use FOI you get all the paperwork.

Re: Changing Rooms...at a cost.
 

No need to bother Gayle I already have it I nicked it out of the toilets.:D

Re: Changing Rooms...at a cost.
 

Let's just wait until the Telegraph uses FOI to find out for us - they're no strangers to using it. :D

Re: Changing Rooms...at a cost.
 

There is no politicaly correct answer to that.:D

Re: Changing Rooms...at a cost.
 

In that case I can't be offended. :D

Re: Changing Rooms...at a cost.
 

Taking inflation into consideration, if they'd have spent your suggested 500 quid in 1974 that would have been an outrageous amount.

It isn't a false economy to spend relatively small amounts on the upkeep of a building, it's prudent. Much better to repair one single roof tile, than for a building to fall down if the rain gets in, and the whole thing has to be built again from scratch.

Not a popular concept with any political party, but then again they all only think five years hence, and not about the more long term, or bigger picture.

Re: Changing Rooms...at a cost.
 

But, and again I don't want to sound too much like I'm defending the Conservatives but there's always a first so here goes - they haven't had any spare money in the budget for a long time so even a small amount couldn't have been spent on the luxury of redecorating the chambers. I realise what you mean about putting a bit aside each year but they haven't been able to do that. I'm not saying the council is rich at the moment but from what I understand books are balanced so that they can put forward an amount for these repairs.

I think I need a lie down - I actually said something positive about the Conservative's management of the council. :eek:

Re: Changing Rooms...at a cost.
 

Did you say recently it was hard to offend you - I best leave now then :rolleyes:

Well after this

:D :D :D :D :D

Re: Changing Rooms...at a cost.
 

Don't tell me you're too chicken to try.:p

Re: Changing Rooms...at a cost.
 

As stated earlier, both the Lancashire Evening Telegraph, and the Accrington Observer reported the cost for the refurbisment of the room to be £40,000.

Nowhere was it reported it to be less, other than for Gayle kindly telling us.

Again as earlier, whoever is releasing information to the press on behalf of HBC, isn't doing a very good job, if indeed it will be redecorated for the lesser amount.

Re: Changing Rooms...at a cost.
 

Well I suspect, (but I don't know) that the redecorating is £16k but that the renovation is £40k - subtle difference I suppose.

To be honest, I'm getting stuck in the middle here, wish I hadn't bothered :o

So this is as much as I know. I saw the piece in the telegraph and it said £40k, so I posted that I thought that sounded a lot for a room that's hardly used. I then bumped into someone in the know, they said that the room is in use and that £16k is closer to the cost, the rest being on renovation.

I was quite happy to put the record straight about the room being used more than I thought. Apparently it's used for full council meetings.

As for the money - I don't really understand the subtlety of decoration/renovation - but my source said £16k so no idea why reports say £40k (or alternatively no idea why he said £16k if indeed it's going to cost £40k) - so in other words absolutely no idea what the difference is being spent on.

No doubt my 'source' will put me straight again! :o

Re: Changing Rooms...at a cost.
 

Not a criticism of you Gayle for putting the record straight on the actual refurbishment costs, more a criticism of HBC's press officer, who now have everyone thinking the cost for some new cushions and a lick of paint will be the reported forty grand.