Well I hope you have had a decent weekend. I've spent mine purely by choice up to my eyeballs in Kier Construction PLC.
Sad I know there are much nicer things to do on a summer weekend but it was very informative. It'll take a bit of time to put it all together but to whet your appetite...
Sad I know there are much nicer things to do on a summer weekend but it was very informative. It'll take a bit of time to put it all together but to whet your appetite...
Kier Construction PLC are the BIG winners in the Cumbrian Academies Program. They have been contracted by Cumbria County Council in the form of your good friend and mine Mora Swann the Children's Directorates senior civil servant to construct three Academies in Cumbria on five sites.
Our other good friend Sue Wilkinson a slightly lesser civil servant has been appointed as the 'project manager' and I'm sure her compatriot Brenda 'Furnessss' Wile will be in the mix somewhere.
The County Councils appointed 'policeman' is Capita Symonds who are lets not forget the outfit which designed the widest and shortest cycle track in Britain on the short stretch of Park road that is now one way only.
So there's the 'team of professionals' who will be overseeing the design and build of these extremely expensive schools paid for by you and me. We also pay these civil servants and their contract companies wages as well.
You would think therefore our point of view is relevant but no not a bit of it. These people ALL know better than you or I and they never miss a chance to tell us do they because they are about to embark on another scheme this time in Workington!
Getting back to Kier Construction PLC.
This is very big company and is very influential in government circles. It is being paid over £100,000,000 to build five buildings in Cumbria by the public purse.
Kier is a commercial company with shareholders so it has to make a profit on it's business activities. Which is as it should be as we live in a market economy.
As we all know you could take a group of children into a field with a blackboard and chalk and provided they have the right teacher with them they will be educated.
Buildings do not educate children people do.
With that it mind no matter how good or how bad Kier designs turn out to be Kier Construction will earn their profits from the taxpayer. If they were building for a commercial client they have to get it right or the client will not pay.
If they build for the taxpayer they will always get paid. This is the truth of the matter for any company who works for the taxpayer.
They are both commercial contracts of course but if they were really the same there would be no need for a company to have an 'education' division of a 'hospital' division in my opinion.
The people that are paid to police taxpayer funded building contracts, civil servants and their contractors, are not as competent as private company 'policemen'.
The civil servants are under no job pressure whatsoever to get things right. As we have seen recently with the Richard Rose fiasco.
The senior team at the failed Academy school were replaced, so lost their jobs, Moira Swann and her team received no sanction whatsoever. As the Barrow scheme has illustrated Moira Swann's team of civil servants are at the heart of this and they got it wrong and stayed in their jobs.
They are NOT the right sort of people to oversee a company like Kier... and they know it which is why they put Capita Symonds in as the 'middleman'.
So it's a 'win win position' for Kier Construction plc.
They build, they get paid.
Our Kids may win, Our Kids may lose but that doesn't matter as Kier still get paid come what may.
Our other good friend Sue Wilkinson a slightly lesser civil servant has been appointed as the 'project manager' and I'm sure her compatriot Brenda 'Furnessss' Wile will be in the mix somewhere.
The County Councils appointed 'policeman' is Capita Symonds who are lets not forget the outfit which designed the widest and shortest cycle track in Britain on the short stretch of Park road that is now one way only.
So there's the 'team of professionals' who will be overseeing the design and build of these extremely expensive schools paid for by you and me. We also pay these civil servants and their contract companies wages as well.
You would think therefore our point of view is relevant but no not a bit of it. These people ALL know better than you or I and they never miss a chance to tell us do they because they are about to embark on another scheme this time in Workington!
Getting back to Kier Construction PLC.
This is very big company and is very influential in government circles. It is being paid over £100,000,000 to build five buildings in Cumbria by the public purse.
Kier is a commercial company with shareholders so it has to make a profit on it's business activities. Which is as it should be as we live in a market economy.
As we all know you could take a group of children into a field with a blackboard and chalk and provided they have the right teacher with them they will be educated.
Buildings do not educate children people do.
With that it mind no matter how good or how bad Kier designs turn out to be Kier Construction will earn their profits from the taxpayer. If they were building for a commercial client they have to get it right or the client will not pay.
If they build for the taxpayer they will always get paid. This is the truth of the matter for any company who works for the taxpayer.
They are both commercial contracts of course but if they were really the same there would be no need for a company to have an 'education' division of a 'hospital' division in my opinion.
The people that are paid to police taxpayer funded building contracts, civil servants and their contractors, are not as competent as private company 'policemen'.
The civil servants are under no job pressure whatsoever to get things right. As we have seen recently with the Richard Rose fiasco.
The senior team at the failed Academy school were replaced, so lost their jobs, Moira Swann and her team received no sanction whatsoever. As the Barrow scheme has illustrated Moira Swann's team of civil servants are at the heart of this and they got it wrong and stayed in their jobs.
They are NOT the right sort of people to oversee a company like Kier... and they know it which is why they put Capita Symonds in as the 'middleman'.
So it's a 'win win position' for Kier Construction plc.
They build, they get paid.
Our Kids may win, Our Kids may lose but that doesn't matter as Kier still get paid come what may.
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