Back bites - Thursday 4 May 2000

Belgian waffle

Something is rotten in the heart of Belgium - in Brussels to be precise, home of the European Commission. The Berlaymont building, which was designed to house the EC in the 1960s, has turned into a veritable construction shambles.

The building is supposed to be under renovation, but the discovery of asbestos halted work in 1992 and has sent costs skyrocketing. Asbestos removal got going again in 1995, but the EC is looking at a final cost of more than £200m, plus a further £33m to buy the building from the Belgian government.

Rumours of an internal report stating it would have been cheaper to demolish the Berlaymont are unconfirmed. Still it's reassuring to know that the authoritative source of directives on construction standards and best practice has got its act together. An example to us all indeed.

Culture club

Graham Watts set a hare running last week in our Talking heads column. While the Construction Industry Council chief found Egan 'not guilty' of brainwashing the industry, he admitted that the Movement for Innovation sounded suspiciously like a cult.

Following publication, CJ happened to meet a high-up from the 'brotherhood'. Surprisingly he said: "I think we want to be seen as a cult, cult is about right. We certainly don't want to be an institution."

Coming a month after the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God, did away with more than 1,000 people, this was perhaps a surprising declaration. Certainly, it gives a whole new meaning to the Egan mantra 'Adapt or die'.

Waiting game

No wonder the relocation of Chelsea Barracks is taking longer than expected. When CJ set about finding what was happening, the man at the Ministry said it was waiting for one of the public private partnership consortia to find a suitable site. This came as a bit of a surprise to one contractor. CJ was told: "We are waiting for the MoD to find the site." Oops.