Thursday 21 October 2010

The closed Kennington Park Astroturf pitches and why it's taking so long...

Further to my article earlier this week on why everything (including the Astroturf court) in Kennington Park appears to be closed, I've sourced some extra info. from the Friends of Kennington Park.

Kennington Park's astroturf pitch was installed in 2006 with a 15 year warranty.  Under the warranty, the seams were fixed in 2008 and 2009.  Issues with the seams were again discovered in August this year, and the manufacturers were called to examine the pitch, after which the installers argued that the seam issues fell outside of the warranty.  Naturally, Lambeth Council argued the opposite view, but the court was closed whilst an investigation upon whom the responsibility should fall was undertaken.  The Council were unable to speed up the repairs by asking another company to look at the issue in view of the fact that it would have invalidated the warranty.  After further meetings and inspections, the manufacturer agreed to make the necessary repairs.  Work was due to commence on the 12th October, but I noticed at the weekend that it appeared to be delayed due to bad weather.  Do any of my readers use the pitch, and has anybody seen any works taking place?

The teams using the pitches have been offered refunds or credits, and from the information above, it appears that the Council have been acting in the best interest of the public.  The question is why the discussions and meetings have taken so long, but I suppose, given the context of a £200,000 pitch at stake, and the technical report requested, that 2 months isn't a great deal of time to resolve the matter.  If the pitch closure continues into a third month, I imagine that more questions will need to be asked.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Note, you may have not got a return tweet from your last tweet to Jack Hopkins because you misspelled his name (jack, not jach).

Anonymous said...

I believe the issue with the pitch is a combination of it having seams for the lines and footballers playing in studs on it. The pitch is not designed for use with studs.

Drpwk said...

I'd like to see the lights being fixed on the entrance to Kennington Park from Camberwell New Road (by the bus stop and basketball court).

That is the only entrance in use after they shut the park. As there are no football players at the moment, that leaves those of us playing netball late (leaving as late as 9pm) to walk down a dark stretch of park where people can easily 'lurk' in shadows. It is quite intimidating and I certainly wouldn't want to do that alone (if you were having tennis coaching you may well have to).

It certainly doesn't feel safe at all.

Anonymous said...

Nothing has been yet taking place to resolve the matters. This quite childish play to see whom to be blame,Is this council people have sense professionlism at all.As a ordinary youth person who utilised the court for the benefit keeping fit and meeting friends is actually despointing.

Lakewood Dishwasher Repair said...

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