Lift not going down well

DEPENDING on who you believe, the lift installed at the Grafton hockey fields is either a waste of money or a necessary cost.

Grafton Hockey Association canteen manager Margaret Francis inside the ill-fitting lift at the dormitory at the Grafton Hockey fields. Picture: David Bancroft

DEPENDING on who you believe, the lift installed at the Grafton hockey fields is either a waste of money, an eyesore and a white elephant or, a necessary cost saving that has allowed the building to reach near completion without going over budget.

For Grafton Hockey Association executive officer Bruce Carle it is the former, and he is so incensed with the result he doesn’t want the Clarence Valley Council involved in any future building projects.

Mr Carle said a local contractor won the tender to build the facility and he included a lift in his tender, but for reasons he didn’t understand, the council asked for the lift to be removed from the tender because it had sourced a lift from elsewhere.

He said the lift the council bought was a different shape from the hole it was to fit and the building had to be modified and electrical wiring re-routed.

“We had designed it thinking about the future,” he said.

“The council thought it would save money by buying two lifts (one for the new cricket pavilion at Ellem Oval), but there have been so many extra costs.

“We had the colour chosen, but when the lift arrive it was bright green.”

He said a couple of weeks after it was installed, a builder and a member of the hockey association went to trial it and got stuck between floors.

They tried the emergency phone, which went through to Sydney and was redirected to Brisbane before cutting out after they could make the call for help.

One of those stuck in the lift had a mobile phone and managed to contact his wife who came to the rescue.

The lift button, he said, needed to be held in between floors or it would stop, making things difficult for people with disabilities to the hand to use.

Council deputy general manager Des Schroder said the council chose the lift because it was the only one they could find that could be constructed on site. For others the roof of the building would have needed to come off.

He said there was $130,000 to spend and if the council had not gone for the lift chosen, there would have been insufficient funds to get other work done.

He said that with the lift installed, it would comply with standards for disability access.

He said the company had returned to repair the fault that had trapped the two men and representatives would be back next week and would have another look to see if the button could be modified so it didn’t need to be held in.

“The colour might be a bit unfortunate,” he said.

Originally published as Lift not going down well