THE collapse of construction firm Clugston has halted work on Newcastle University’s new £39m extension and £25m sports centre.
Clugston, which employs more than 600 people, called in administrators KPMG last week.
KPMG said the two projects were ‘on hold pending the outcome of current discussions’. The university said it was liaising with the administrator.
The Unite union is seeking a meeting with KPMG over unpaid wages.
Regional officer John McIntyre said it was ‘devastating news for Clugston workers who have been told they will not be paid before Christmas’.
The university’s new sport and exercise science building on Richardson Road was due to open in January.
It was expected to house offices and teaching facilities for sport, nutrition, psychology and medical education disciplines.
A Newcastle University spokesperson said: ‘Work has currently ceased on the sites and the buildings have been secured while we are liaising with the administrator.’
Clugston Distribution Services Ltd and Clugston Estates Ltd are not affected.
- Delivery of the next phase of Greater Anglia’s new £1.4bn fleet of trains has been delayed by software problems.
Manufacturer Bombardier said the first trains were expected to enter service by spring and not the end of this year.
It said development of the software to be used on the 111 trains had taken longer than anticipated.
Greater Anglia, which has seen a string of delays and cancellations with its new trains, said it had been told extra staff had been assigned to the job.
The first of the trains – which will run into London Liverpool Street – were expected to come into service at the end of the year, with all of them in use by the end of 2020.
‘There is no precise date for entry into passenger service but we estimate spring 2020,’ said a Bombardier spokesman.
‘The reason for the delay is we have needed longer than we thought to complete the software development on the new trains.’
A Greater Anglia spokesman added: ‘Bombardier have assured us that production is being ramped up, with extra staff at their Derby factory so that our customers can benefit from these state-of-the-art trains as quickly as possible.’
Once complete, Greater Anglia’s new fleet of 169 trains will include 38 bi-mode trains, able to run on diesel or electric power, and 20 electric trains to serve the Norwich-London and Stansted Express services.
The remaining 111 trains made by Bombardier will serve London Liverpool Street from Essex, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire.
Greater Anglia has also admitted it was ‘letting people down’ after its service was described by commuters as a ‘shambles’ whose unreliability was ‘affecting people’s work’.
