Dartmouth Park Restoration - VI

Well well well.

It's barely 6 weeks since I wrote my last blog on the subject of the new concrete steps at Dartmouth Park which Sandwell have (almost) built next to where a perfectly good stone stairway was before they demolished it in the name of 'Restoration.'

Eventhough the new concrete steps appeared to be complete 6 weeks ago, they have not been made available for use by the public.

This suggests that perhaps they were not complete after all.

In support of this theory is the fact that 2 days ago a number of men were seen to be making holes in the brand new side walls.

I have previously reported that I had been told that, the closest thing you can get to the horse's mouth on this project had said, there were to be no handrails.

However, these nice new holes in the side walls seem to suggest that there are to be some after all - albeit 6 weeks (and counting) after the concrete steps seemed otherwise to have been finished.

Could it be that some ordinary person (not an expert or architect or anything like that) in Sandwell read my blog and concurred with my view that the steps, in their then form, were lots of accidents waiting to happen?

I would like to think so, but I doubt it.

Why?

Because this is Sandwell we are talking about, and although I had been dropping hints since late last year, I didn't actually say that I thought someone had forgotten the handrails until 29th March this year. That's only 6 weeks ago and there is no way that the coterie of Sandwell planners; designers; architects; health and safety experts; procurement officers; fabricators; installation contractors; councillors etc etc etc could organise something as major as a couple of handrails in 6 weeks.

I conclude, therefore, that my original information about the handrails being deliberately designed out, was incorrect.

Or was it?

If the handrails were designed in from the outset, why has it taken until now for a start to be made on installing them?

And where are the holes for the rail which needs to go down the centre of the steps?

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