Rubbish bin in Ashford's shared space cost £1,500
Bins costing £1,500 each - and more
than £4,000 spent on a bench!
That is how the costs for the
shared space 'street furniture' have added up.
Now one council chief has admitted
too much was spent on the pioneering Ashford ring road scheme.
Cllr Keith Ferrrin, KCC cabinet
member for highways, was responding to details of costs, obtained
under Freedom of Information by the Kentish Express, showing how
the £15.9m budget was spent.
It reveals how stainless steel
rubbish bins cost £1,500 each, cycle racks nearly £400 each and the
designer of controversial lamp-posts charged a fee of more than
£20,000.
Cllr Ferrin (Con), below, said: "My
own view is that all this stuff has cost a fortune and it is not
justified and should not have happened. If I had been involved
earlier, then I would have moved to stop some of this
happening.
"I do not think these prices were
justified and I am not one of those who believes they had to be
paid for the scheme."
We revealed earlier this year how
streetlights in the shared space area cost £7,000 each – seven
times more than a conventional lamppost.
The figures show the rubbish bins
are not the only feature of the ring road revamp that cost a
four-figure sum.
The same company that provided the
bins also provided the wooden and steel benches, like the ones off
Bank Street.
Pause for a rest on one of these
and you will be sitting on a piece of street furniture that cost an
eye-watering £1,870.
But even that was dwarfed by the
£4,100 spent on a prototype timber and stone bench, which can now
be seen at Forge Lane.
More than £31,000 was spent on the
36 wooden bollards that can be seen along Elwick Road by the
entrance to Debenhams and at other entrances to County Square, an
average of £700 each.
A further £5,953 was spent on the
granite benches along Bank Street.
For a special report,
including the full 'shopping list', see our exclusive report in
this week's Kentish Express
21/05/09
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