Mowlem removed from Bath Spa

Bath and North East Somerset (BANES) Council has instructed Mowlem to leave the troubled Bath Spa site. The council has appointed Capita Symonds as contract administrator/project manager to oversee the delayed scheme's completion.

Capita Symonds will carry out an audit of the physical state of the building and then complete it using specialist contractors.

In a statement, BANES said: "The final straw came this week. The contract administrator (Grimshaw) instructed the builder to replace the floor in the steam room. It had been taken up to discover the reasons for the leaks. Mowlem has refused to confirm that it will comply with this instruction issued on 24 March and this is reminiscent of the prolonged legal battle over the peeling paint. The architect states the problem is poor workmanship, the builder says it is poor design. Stalemate. Again."

A Mowlem spokesman said: "We have just received a lengthy document from BANES and are still fully digesting its contents and considering its implications, but our initial response is that the council’s action is incomprehensible.

"We were instructed before Easter to carry out some programming and production of a method statement, followed (once approved) by some further works. We have been performing that instruction, as the council well knows, albeit that we have reserved our position as to its validity. The time for the first stage of that instruction - preliminary method statement and programme - does not expire until tonight. We sent a programme to the architect yesterday and have been working towards the production of the method statement. 

"[This morning] the council purported to bring the contract to an end. This is a bizarre thing to have done in the circumstances, and exposes the council, and thereby the taxpayers, to a substantial claim. Our preliminary legal advice is that the council's action itself constitutes a repudiation of the contract. We will decide shortly whether we will accept the council's repudiation.”