黑洞社区

Captive audience

Rather conveniently the large construction site over the road from Davis Langdon鈥檚 High Holborn headquarters is a DL project - DL is cost consultant on the eight-storey mixed-use scheme its offices overlook. This is handy for any QS who wants to inspect a site from the comfort of his or her desk. But the proximity also provides other firms working on this project prime advertising space to target one of the largest consultants in the country. It so happens that Mace has a supersize banner wrapped round the core of the under-construction building. I鈥檓 told Keltbray, who came before Mace to knock down the previous building, coincidently had its sizeable banner directly in line with the fourth floor reception at DL 鈥�

Going the extra mile

When the press is describing your scheme as a 鈥渃risis鈥� (Scotland TV), a 鈥渄ebacle鈥� (Scotsman) and a 鈥渇iasco鈥� (Scottish Daily Herald), it鈥檚 clear not all is well on your project, from the PR point of view at least. So pity Turner & Townsend, which is set to take control of Edinburgh鈥檚 tram scheme from Transport Initiatives Edinburgh in the next couple of weeks. The scheme鈥檚 projected costs have soared from 拢545m to 拢1bn. In the same week T&T鈥檚 appointment was announced, councillors voted to cut the tram scheme in half so that it terminates a mile short of the town centre. But perhaps it鈥檚 a good time for T&T to get on board. After all, it can hardly get any worse.

A tale of two Gregs

When two of the industry鈥檚 few ministers share the same first name, it鈥檚 bound to cause confusion. So I can just about forgive one of my hacks for asking the Green Deal minister Greg Barker鈥檚 press officer what Greg Clark鈥檚 plans were for the eco-retrofitting scheme (Clark is decentralisation minister at the communities department). The press officer corrected my hack, before admitting: 鈥淒on鈥檛 worry, it happens all the time.鈥� What does this say about the distinctiveness of two of our industry鈥檚 most esteemed ministers?

Hand that feeds

We鈥檙e glad to hear Laing O鈥橰ourke treats its subcontractors to a similar level of gastronomic excellence as it does its clients. The contractor is known to take senior subbies to Wiltons restaurant in London鈥檚 Mayfair. According to the Wilton鈥檚 website, the set menu is 拢80 a head, or 拢150 each with wine. It would seem, given O鈥橰ourke鈥檚 reputation for driving a hard bargain, the upside for subbies is that at least you get a slap-up meal.

The clue鈥檚 in the name

As expected, last week鈥檚 story on main contractors deploying slightly unsavoury tactics to force payments out of their supply chain partners prompted a lively debate on the 黑洞社区 website. Good to see so many reasoned and clear arguments from our readers. One of the contributors, I feel, may have already made his mind up about the subject before he read the article, contributing the comments 鈥渟cum鈥� and, later, 鈥淭he fact is these companies cash in on the desperation of many smaller businesses who are taking work on at silly prices to survive.鈥� His cyber handle may give you a further clue to his point of view, if you needed one. It was, simply: 鈥淚 hate main contractors.鈥�

A tweet too far

As a recent Twitter convert there are still many things about this new-fangled social networking that I haven鈥檛 been able to get my head around. One of which is tweeters鈥� propensity to collide the word 鈥渢witter鈥� with another to create a compound word, or 鈥渢word鈥� (that was my attempt). So we have 鈥渢witterati鈥�, 鈥渢wypo鈥�, 鈥渢wittilate鈥� and even 鈥渢witsomnia鈥�. But by far the most cringeworthy effort I鈥檝e seen is in the bio description on the British Precast Concrete鈥檚 twitter page. It reads: 鈥淭his is the Twittercrete site for the national federation for the UK concrete products industry.鈥� Twittercrete?! I despair.