Wednesday, May 14, 2008

KENT COUNCIL TAKE LEGAL ACTION OVER TURNER CONTEMPORARY DEBACLE



It's two years since, Kent Council announced the cancellation of the original Turner contemporary gallery, which was to have been located at sea.If memory serves me correctly we as taxpayers have lost something in the region of eight million pounds, and not surprisingly Kent Council are seeking to retrieve some of that money by suing architects Snohetta and Spence.


Thankfully the most recent design from David Chipperfield, not only looks the part, but will be built on dry land (except when it's stormy) so fingers crossed this will get built within budget.


Now I just wonder how strong Kent council's position is, given the fact that I believed every bidder in the previous selection process, based their plans on the rendezvous site, whilst rather surprisingly Snohetta and Spence chose the unlikely offshore location (and KCC accepted), which I believe only showed up in part at the edge in one of the corners of the map given to competing architects.

Still presumably Kent Council know what they're doing, and hopefully we won't be left with an additional bill for an unsuccessful legal action. Still it's an ill wind that blows nobody any good and amongst other things, the Turner contemporary debacle was my prime motivation for starting this weblog almost worth the eight million itself!

7 comments:

  1. It could be tricky to settle this one out of court with a non disclosure agreement as Tax payers cannot be kept in the dark about any amount recovered.

    If they win this one maybe they will take on Ten Alps for such a boring service and for not meeting advert revenue targets. Some hope.

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  2. Yes I agree Tony the Chipperfield design is great and now the Harbour arm is due to open next weekend I am sure things are lokking better

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  3. Its been some time since we saw a picture of one of the prospective labour candidates for kent county council!

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  4. Love the picture...hilarious,just about sums up the whole situation,an elephant's a**e!!!

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  5. See the new retail shops open on the harbour on the 24th. Speaking to one of the contractors today, painting has not been much fun with all the sea spray. Cafe society and the shops will be great there with the sea spray plus the stink from harbour suffering from the lack of dreading.Time the council invested in the basic infrastucture before approving such developments surely??

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  6. They say that "good art" makes you think and react so maybe TDC is really a performance art instillation?

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