IT disappoints and appals me when I read public statements of misinformation from councillors elected to represent local ratepayers.

I refer to the letter published in last week's Citizen from Cllr Ian Barker who attempts to justify why he voted to accept what he calls the "detailed, thorough and comprehensive" inquiry by the council's internal auditor concerning the £1.3 million overspend on the Salt Ayre Phase 2 (swimming pool) construction project, the cost of which was met by local ratepayers on top of the £4.2 million initially contributed.

Cllr Barker states that the major cause of the overspend was the unexpectedly poor ground conditions. As someone with specialist knowledge of procedures for these type of projects, Cllr Barker's statement can be seen to be inaccurate by simply analysing the additional costs and how they relate to the total of 16 weeks extensions of time granted by the contract administrator.

The total 16 week extension consisted of 6.4 weeks for the poor ground conditions, 1.6 weeks for the late receipt of steelwork design drawings provided by the structural engineers, 4 weeks for the failure of the pool rendering due to incorrect design specification and 4 weeks for miscellaneous variations. The costs attributed to the poor ground conditions only account for a small proportion of the overspend and what the report does not identify is the fact that within the tender sum of £5.2 million, there were contingency sums totalling £300K to cover unforeseen events such as groundwater.

In my opinion, the unsatisfactory outcome can be attributed to the failure to produce a sufficient, accurate and quality controlled project information within the tender documents to prevent possible exploitation by any commercially aware contractors who might seek to maximise profits within the parameters set by the contractual conditions.

If the audit report had been truly "detailed, thorough and comprehensive" it would have highlighted that there should have been 22 - not 2 - monthly financial statements and would have included the very important engineer's site investigation report.

If responsible councillors wish to know how projects can be cost controlled when ground water is encountered I would suggest they refer to the tender documents at the town hall for three mobility bungalows built at Kingsway, in the mid 1990s by a local builder, at a site a mile from Salt Ayre where groundwater was encountered.

On a final note, I wish Cllr Barker all the best in what should be his final term of office as a councillor at the town hall. He has consistently shown a total disregard for public accountability.

Public Servant

Lancaster

And don't forget the pool isn't wide enough either! - Ed