Dear Councillor,

I am the project manager for the work which has been happening throughout 2021 and this year at Cromwell Crescent Park. 

I very much regret the elongated timeline to do this project which became more complex than first envisaged when we started on site in February last year when we commenced clearing the embankment of undergrowth along Cromwell Crescent. We needed to engage structural engineers to check the stability of the embankment supporting the road. Also it became apparent that the boundary railings couldn’t be installed due to the unevenness of the kerb-line running along the footway in Cromwell Crescent. I first contacted the County Council in mid-March last year to request advice which eventually resulted in a new footway in February this year. We had to re-quote for the park railings once County Highways had finished because the original installation job had changed. The main improvements within the park, carried out by our in-house Works Team, progressed from September ’21 to January this year however we did experience lengthy delivery times for some park furniture.

I have met with the contractor today to discuss when the boundary railings can be installed. They will be ordered by the end of this week and have a 4 – 6 week production time. The contractor will send me a programme as to when they will start installation. Given the date, this is now estimated to be June and could take 2 to 3 weeks.

We have appointed another contractor to do the landscaping, seeding and other biodiversity features, and we are just discussing when they can start on site. This is seasonally timed work and we are aiming to start seeding the meadow areas next month. The first part of the work will be 4 weeks. Planting of shrubs and trees will need to wait until November and this will take 2 weeks.

By the time we will finish this project there will have been 12 organisations either in a design, technical, financial or contracting capacity. Some of these had to follow one another.

I hope residents will see the benefit of the improvements made and that the park will now be useable 12 months of the year.

Regards

Tim Allen
Environmental Operations Projects Manager