Smug consultants zip around the country rubber-stamping 25m and puddle solutions for councils. They are happy filling in deep-ends, creating pools with a hydraulic floors at one end and a shallow end at the other (!?). They looking upon local campaigners with undisguised scorn yet earning a pretty good living with no comeback or consequences. If true the fiasco in Stratford is the Klondike of all 'covered holes in the ground full of water' consultancies.

"Consultants' fees for the project to build the Olympic aquatics centre could hit £40million, it has emerged.

The cost of employing outside engineers, architects and surveyors has mounted following changes to the venue's complex design.

Olympic chiefs are demanding venues for the 2012 Games are 'green'. This has proved a challenge for the aquatics centre because such pools are noted for high heating bills.

Rising professional fees are thought to be one of the main factors contributing to the centre's budget, which has tripled to £214million, as revealed by the Evening Standard last week."

(Via 2012 chiefs splashing out £40m on pool consultants | Evening Standard: .)

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| olympic news | 15 February 2008; 11:49:10 PM |# | | |