Securitygate blunder:who will foot bill?

It was back to the drawing board for engineers at Arun District Council after realising their mistake in putting the gate in the wrong alleyway on the estate in Hampshire Avenue.

But Neighbourhood Watch co-ordinator Frank White from Westloats Gardens has taken Arun District Council to task.

The criticism came after the special gate was wrongly put up in an alleyway leading to the rear of council homes in Hampshire Avenue and back gardens to private addresses in Westloats Gardens.

Apparently the gate should have instead been installed in an alleyway on the opposite side of the road.

'It just arrived without any consultation,' said Mr White.

'We had been away and no letters had been sent saying we were going to get a gate to the alleyway. And while I and others welcomed it, some residents were against it.'

'Workmen brought the gate, dug the holes for it and filled them with fast-drying cement '“ but then removed it within the hour,' said Mr White.

'The gate was just left on the ground after it was realised it was in the wrong alleyway, and was collected the next day.'

Believing the whole exercise including the cost of the expensive gate and the work to erect it and then remove it to be in the region of 2,000, Mr White said it appeared it had been erected in the wrong place '“ and the gate was completely the wrong size for the correct location.

And he claimed the mistake '“ which happened several weeks ago '“ could have been easily rectified.

'If the council had written to owners and told them what they were doing, it could all have been avoided,' he said.

'It's our money that has been wasted.'

Mr White believes the 6ft x 4ft gate and the four or five sets of keys that went with it could now be scrapped.

Arun District Council, in a statement, admitted there had been an error with where the gate was initially positioned.

'But this was rectified almost immediately and a second gate was installed in the correct place,' said the statement.

'The original gate that was installed incorrectly has been taken down and will be altered and used elsewhere in the district, so it will not be wasted.'