 There are a few red faces at New Forest District Council.
The Conservative run authority attracted national publicity and was even included in the “Rotten Boroughs” section of Private Eye, for losing over £345,000 of taxpayer’s money when it took on a flooring company who, they claimed, was responsible for slippery floors in the Health and Leisure Centres.
The case went spectacularly wrong when the District Council took the flooring company, Titanium Polyurethane Seal (TPS) to the High Court.
The Judge ruled that the floor was slippery because of the inadequate cleaning systems employed by the council. He was severely critical of the authority for the way it managed contracts.
The ruling Tory group rejected demands for an inquiry and nobody was ever sacked or even disciplined.
An internal officer report promised that the whole process of awarding contracts would be tightened up to stop such a thing happening again.
There remains a lot of ill feeling between the council and the flooring company, TPS.
The Directors of TPS were therefore amazed when they recently received an E-mail from the council asking them to quote for work needed to a sports hall floor.
The company have politely declined.
Councillor David Harrison, Liberal Democrat Shadow spokesman for Leisure matters says “It seems that a council officer was asked to get estimates for work on the sports hall floors. He found the details on Google and e-mailed TPS for a quote.
It doesn’t inspire any confidence that procedures for tightening up contracts has improved since the slippery floor case”. |
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