黑洞社区

In sickness and in health

Do Atkins and Network Rail need marriage counselling? The UK engineering giant reported contraction in revenue and profit in its domestic market in half-year results published last week and, by way of explanation, pointed to issues in its rail and aerospace divisions. The firm鈥檚 outgoing UK & Europe chief executive David Tonkin told my journalist the rail division had been hit by 鈥渧ariations鈥� on long-term Network Rail contracts. He followed this up with an analogy: 鈥淚t鈥檚 like if you鈥檙e getting work done on your house and then your wife says, 鈥極h, I want another wall over there鈥�. You could perhaps say, your wife should have thought of that at the start.鈥�

For richer or poorer

There was consternation among consultants last week after the government鈥檚 decision to scrap the 拢750m UK SBS framework, with RLB estimating that the 15-month saga could cost the sector around 拢5m in wasted bidding costs. But news reaches us of an eye-wateringly expensive bidding process that puts this in the shade. The investors behind the planned Guggenheim Helsinki museum - which attracted a record-breaking 1,715 submissions from architects - have said total bid costs have already reached over 鈧�18m (拢14.3m). At this rate perhaps the design competition will cost more than the actual building.

So help me GOD

鈥淐anadians ask 鈥楪od鈥� to help Canary Wharf bid鈥� - so ran the headline in the Sunday Times at the weekend. The story was about Canadian investors Brookfield Property Partners and its partner the Qatar Investment Authority鈥檚 attempt to acquire the owners of Canary Wharf, Songbird Estates. With only their first 拢2.2bn approach knocked back to date, it seemed early for the Canadians and Qataris to be calling on divine intervention. But all is not as it seems. The 鈥淕od鈥� the Sunday Times referred to is former top civil servant Lord Gus O鈥橠onnell, who has been drafted in to help with the bid. He gained the 鈥淕od鈥� moniker for the way in which he initialled documents at Whitehall.

Seventh circular of hell

As the saying goes, timing is everything. So it was unfortunate that chancellor George Osborne chose last Thursday and Friday for his tour of the country to assess road investment needs - just as workers were rushing to fill potholes on the M25 which had caused three lanes of the road to close. It appears the surface on the London circular between junctions nine and 10 became so bad on Thursday that a large number of cars鈥� tyres were damaged, causing the closure of three lanes of the motorway on Friday. Cue traffic chaos. Osborne, who travelled to visit road schemes in Yeovil, Norwich and the North-west in his two-day tour, could have found a road in need of attention much closer to home.

We鈥檙e on a road to nowhere

In more road news, a planning row over an unofficial toll road in Somerset has to be the oddest I鈥檝e come across for a while. Businessman Mike Watts opened the road in August after the nearby A431 had to be closed due to a landslip - but hadn鈥檛 got planning permission. Rather than close the road the council told him to apply for permission retrospectively. Watts blasted the council in the national press last week for making 鈥渞idiculous鈥� objections to the road, which still does not have planning permission. But here鈥檚 the bizarre bit - it鈥檚 due to close and be destroyed in a few weeks when the A431 reopens. The planning battle is literally a fuss over nothing.