Controversial Pier Gardens revamp on hold as NELC axes procurement exercise

                                           

The artist's impressions mostly looked pleasing but the reality might have been very different

A CONTROVERSIAL scheme  to revamp Pier Gardens in Cleethorpes has suddenly been thrown into doubt.

 North East Lincolnshire Council has  today scrapped until further notice its procurement exercise to hire a contractor.

All the designs and tender documents will now come under review.

A memo sent to the few firms who had expressed an interest in tendering reads as follows:

Dear Tenderers,

We hope this message finds you well.

We are writing to inform you that, due to a need to revisit our tender documents, the Council has made the decision to cancel  the current procurement exercise for the Principal Contractor Pier Gardens.

Our plan is to restart the procurement process as soon as possible. We will notify all tenderers with the new procurement plans,  timeline and all the revised documentation.

We appreciate your understanding and patient, and thank you for your cooperation.

Kind regards,

Procurement Team

The wording leaves the door open for some sort of rejig in the future.

But unless the authority can come up with a more coherent proposal, one that is backed by formal planning consent, it is possible that the £8.57- million project will quietly be left to die a death.

Today's revelation will come as a blow to skateboarders who had been looking forward to the creation of a skatepark at the north end of the site near the junction of Alexandra Road and Sea Road.

But there will be few tears shed by those who feared proposals to hard-surface much of the site greenery would be detrimental to the gardens which date back to 1885.

When one of its features, the maze, was removed in spring last year at estimated cost of £17,000, there was a massive backlash from disgusted residents.

Today’s decision means that Cleethorpes will be spared having the whole perimeter of Pier Gardens being surrounded by ugly hoarding until next Easter and beyond with all that might imply for events such as Armed Forces weekend.

* See also previous Grimsby News post