Goodwill gesture will make College Green again – at cut rate
CONTRACTORS have offered to repair the £20,000 damage caused to College Green by Occupy Bristol for just a fraction of the price.
After the peaceful eviction of the Occupy Bristol encampment on January 31 council officers deemed the damage so extensive that the appropriate way forward was extensive re-turfing, costing around £20,000.
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The aftermath of the occupation of College Green, Bristol
But Craig West Turf of Avonmouth and Elmtree Garden Contractors of Pilning have made a goodwill offer to returf the entire area for only £4,000 plus VAT, restoring the landmark site to its former glory.
The two companies, who will be supported by the council's in-house landscaping team, start work today to dig out contaminated soil and a further outdoor vacuuming of the site with specialist equipment to remove debris and scan for metal objects.
The work is expected to be completed by the end of the month.
Fencing around the site will need to remain for a further month after that to let the new turf settle.
It is expected that College Green will be open to the public at the beginning of April, in plenty of time for use in the spring and the next events booked onto the Green.
Council leader Barbara Janke said: "It is now full steam ahead to return the Green back to its proper use as a public space all the city can use and enjoy. This is a fantastic offer from these two contractors to help towards the cost of reinstating College Green, saving the council tax payer thousands of pounds."
Cabinet councillor for Targeted Improvements Gary Hopkins said: "The contractors, together with our excellent landscape team, can now get cracking to return College Green to the people of Bristol as soon as possible."
Protesters had said they wanted to carry out repair works themselves but only had hundreds of pounds.
28 Comments
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by NickFury
Wednesday, February 15 2012, 9:31PM
“Personally, I just love the continued censoring of the word bailiffs.”
by haark
Tuesday, February 14 2012, 10:27PM
“I've seen the Downs look worse after a particularly wet Fair. It's tough stuff, grass. Let it regenerate in its own time. Just keep off it till May.”
by rocketbob
Tuesday, February 14 2012, 5:22PM
“why can`t the church make a collection. They allowed the people to stay there.”
by DazzyBoy
Tuesday, February 14 2012, 4:28PM
“The site has look a mess for months now, I can't see why they can't wait just a couple more weeks and reseed the area rather than turf it. It could be re-seeded in a good quality rye grass mixture for less than a £1000.00. College Green would have full grass back by the end of April and the finish would look better than turfing.”
by dicktator
Tuesday, February 14 2012, 3:08PM
“Soon as its finished and the fence is down it will be Spring and we can advertise it for use by anyone with a tent or caravan again. Seems you can stay 5 months for free, - an excellent deal.”
by frank1958
Tuesday, February 14 2012, 2:36PM
“Saw a newsclip lunch time, think they will struggled to get it done for £4.000.”
by smoosername
Tuesday, February 14 2012, 2:19PM
“Regardless of how much it costs (£4,000-100,000) I don't see the 'protesters' paying for it like they promised they would.”
by SpinyHedgehog
Tuesday, February 14 2012, 2:08PM
“@Bristol1978
"Feel free to volunteer to crawl on your hands and knees across College Green looking for hypodermic needles."
Go for it, Rosset. There might be some smack left in some of them...”
by DazzyBoy
Tuesday, February 14 2012, 12:58PM
“A goodwill gesture by contractors; perhaps they should have asked Bob Diamond for a good will gesture, £4000 out of his 3 million quid bonus would have been peanuts!!!”
by FishpondsMan
Tuesday, February 14 2012, 12:42PM
“Surely the story should be why does the council quote £20k and a private contractor £4k?
The goodwill bit is rubbish once again BCC have been found out. The landscaper we use reckons around £4k - £5k +vat as a standard rate (they calculate it by the sqm). As usual anything BCC touch costs 4 times as much a private company and takes 4 times as long, I wonder why?”