£74,000 later... and it still leaks (From Gazette & Herald)

£74,000 later... and it still leaks

THE MANAGEMENT of Kirkbymoorside's War Memorial Hall are gutted after a £74,000 refurbishment programme on the Dugout has failed to keep the water out.

At the hall's annual general meeting on Monday night it was reported that the Dugout, which is in the basement of the building, had been out of use for months due to two flash floods last year.

The chairman of the hall's management committee, Norman Helm, said he and the rest of the committee were devastated by these events after a refurbishment project which had been three years in the making.

"I'm gutted by it and I'm sure the rest of the management committee are gutted by it."

He said it took a long time to establish the project and to decide whether it was worth refurbishing or abandoning the basement altogether.

"We did take a decision that it would be an asset to the hall and the town and felt it was only right to do something about it," he said.

"At this moment, it has all come to nothing apart from the fact we have a potentially very nice venue."

He said that since the October flooding, the Dugout remained unusable.

Speaking on behalf of the committee, John Ridley said that from the start of the project the committee decided to get professional advice on how to make it habitable.

He said the committee brought in the architects McNeil and Beechey, based in York, to work on the design.

Their brief, said Mr Ridley, was to improve the basement accommodation to include a lettable meeting room with toilet and kitchen facility and to eliminate the damp problem and provide a more attractive environment.

After three years of work, the dugout was finally ready for opening in late 1999.

"The Dugout has flooded twice (in the past year), once in April and once or perhaps more than once in October," said Mr Ridley.

McNeil and Beechey and representatives from the builders did visit the venue to look at the damage from the flooding.

But Mr Ridley said: "They said whilst they undertook to eliminate damp they never undertook to keep the water out."

After the October flooding, the committee decided to instruct an independent structural engineer to have a look at the work and advise them.

In a large report by Peter Hucks of Maughan, Reynolds and Partners, it observes that McNeil and Beechey had not fulfilled the instructions of the committee nor had they satisfied the brief.

The report shows that it will cost between £7000-£10,000 for the extra remedial work on top of the £74,000 already paid out.

Representatives from McNeil and Beechey were not at the meeting but afterwards John McNeil said they were considering the report. He said: "We have said all along we don't think we are at fault but we are considering the report."

Despite all the problems, the management committee have not given up on the Dugout.

"We will continue to work to make sure the dugout becomes an asset to the town," said Mr Helm.

"We will do our best to ensure we get compensation for the whole affair."

Updated: 15:02 Thursday, February 08, 2001