Firm walks away from pool tender

A FIRM appointed by North Down Borough Council to build Bangor’s new Olympic Pool has walked away from the long awaited project, it is claimed.

North Down Borough Council accepted a joint bid by two construction firms, but one of them pulled out leaving the other unable to see the £40m development through.

Now the council is planning to appoint it’s second choice bid for the tender and must go through all the procurement processes again.

“It’s going to be August by the time this tender is awarded and probably September by the time building work starts,” a source told the Spectator.

“The firm involved took on another contract in England and the other firm was unable to carry out the work.”

Private talks were taking place at the Town Hall on Tuesday night, but it’s believed that a new construction contract was being tabled before councillors.

If all goes to plan, that will be signed in August and work should commence in September.

However, the centre will not be completed until after the 2012 Olympic Games – it was hoped that the pool would be a designated training centre for athletes.
A spokeswoman for North Down Borough Council confirmed that the process has been set back to square one.
She said, “It had been hoped that construction would begin on the Valentine Playing Fields site in June.  However, there was a delay in awarding the contract for construction and so work could not proceed to the original timescale.

     “The construction contract will now be awarded in August allowing work on site to start at the end of the summer.  This will enable the new facility to be open to the public by summer 2012.

“The delay is disappointing but outside of council control."