CARILLION, THE JUGGERNAUT ROLLS ON.

Quite unexpectedly on October the 18^th John Laings, the contractors who have been decimating several boroughs in Greater London and whom a number of conservation groups including mine have been fighting were bought out be Carillion.

Apparently, according to their press release they wished to return to their core business of construction, and were no longer interested in managing(or miss managing,depending upon your point of view) parks, cemeteries and other green spaces and several libraries in a number of boroughs.

While I do not presume to suppose that the constant harrying of Laings by groups such as ours it must, I am certain have gone some way to convincing them that their acute lack of expertise and total absence of customer relations was coming to a head and that some serious law suits were heading their way.

So who and what are Carillion? Well big is what they are,as to who they are if you believe their web site and their publicity releases they are, among many other wonderful things ,very interested in preserving the green spaces in our inner cities. Perhaps I am just a hardened old cynic but after Continental Landscapes, not so much who care as “Who cares?” and John Laings who patently did not care at all,I cannot wholeheartedly welcome Richard Howson C.E.O ,and his Juggernaut of a company.

My problem is quite simply this. When the care of parks,playing fields,and green spaces in general were in the care of our elected local authorities own employees there was far more notice taken of how these places worked. Now, like everything else,these jobs are put out to tender, and quite often the companies who are given the contract tender parts of the work to other companies...are you beginning to see the problem?

Everyone wants to make a profit...well of course they do, but when this is done by destroying the environment to make it easier to manage we must call a halt.

Tree surgery becomes reactive rather than pro active and so trees are lost. Hacking out all the undergrowth makes a green space easier to manage i.e. two men with strimmers instead of four with hand tools. Result,no birds as their habitat is destroyed, no butterflies and moths, no bats,in fact no anything. This is the true cost of making a profit!

The directors of these companies are not local and so it signifies nothing to them that our green spaces are trashed,there huge salaries pay for mansions in places like Esher or Alderly Edge,to put it bluntly, they don't care either !

I hope with all my heart that I am wrong, but in case I am not I would like to send a message to Mr Howson.

We saw off Continental and we saw off Laings, we are ready for you, and remember “the bigger they are the harder they fall.”