New Community Hub – Update.

After undertaking the tender process of the new community hub project (demolition and build) the tenders received all came back much higher than had been indicated by the Quantity Surveyor and higher than the funding budget available for the project.  This resulted in the Town Council, along with the project team, having to undertake a value engineering exercise with the various tenderers which included possible re-designs etc.  Unfortunately the contractors were still providing tenders that exceeded the available budget and this, along with the timescales involved with the Youth Investment Fund, meant that the original project became unviable.

Rather than put an immediate stop to the project, and lose the opportunity of the investment for the area, the Town Council took the decision to investigate the possibility of a modular build and are currently working with the funders to see if this is viable both with regards to delivering the services required by the funder but also to be able to deliver the project within the timescales involved. There are still a couple of legal issues regarding construction access, that are with the various Solicitors, and these are hoped to be resolved soon.

Whilst this is not the news we were expecting to have at this stage and it is obviously extremely disappointing and frustrating for residents, the Town Council are committed to working hard and doing all that it can to try to ensure the £4.3 million funding remains in the Town to benefit the communities of Greenhithe and Swanscombe. On a positive note, the required works that have been undertaken to date (planning, ground investigations, ecology, acoustics, archaeology, transport/travel, topography etc.) will all remain valid and available going forward.

We are sorry that we are unable to provide better news at this stage, but we will give further updates when we receive information from the funder.

Further details of the current position can be found using the following links which are for the report that was published on the Town Council website for the 17 January 2024 full council meeting

1 of 5 – 17 January 2024

2 of 5 – 17 January 2024

3 of 5 – 17 January 2024

4 of 5 – 17 January 2024

5 of 5 – 17 January 2024