Heads will roll
By Eric Williams | Published: 07 March, 2006
Shopping Centre, as a magazine, had its beginnings in the marketing of a major London scheme. Being brought alongside to undertake the entire panoply of marketing activities that a new centre entails gave me a real, in-at-the-deep-end, notion of what shopping centre development can hold for the unwary.
The marketing team had one shock when another major scheme, after a massive pre-opening campaign, had to announce that it would not be opening on the publicised date - almost as opening-day crowds started to gather at the door.
There was I, dressed in my penguin suit and about to leave for a dinner with the great Fred Trueman at The Oval, when the dread call came. The building inspectors had refused to give final approval - something to do with fire screens not operating properly.
There was just a couple of days to go. Ad campaigns had to be pulled; caterers put off, etc. Cancellation charges were high.
The fire-screen problem was overcome and we opened a bit late.
All this is a preamble to wondering what went wrong at Bournemouth's Castlepoint, where the bulk of the car-parking structure was deemed unsafe. Many retailers lost the vital Christmas trade. One can imagine the scrambling for cover of all intimately concerned: the plethora of 'Not me, guv'nor' buck-passing statements. Heads ducked well below any available parapet.
Someone, obviously more than one single person or company, acted in a slip-shod fashion. All too often such jobs are rushed in the mad scramble to get a new scheme up and running. Anything to get developer and project managers off backs!
The chickens, in this case, came home to roost and heads will roll. It is right they should, but only if blame falls on the right shoulders and scapegoats are not, wrongly, shoved into the firing line. As sure as God made little apples, the lawyers will make a few bob.
Eric Williams
eric.williams73@ntlworld.com
