Brent Council Civic Centre Snagging

I just thought I would add a short post on some of the minor snagging that is still coming up in the Civic Centre.  I don't think any of these are particularly dramatic.  They are just the kind of things you have to expect with a new building.

The one I hear most complaints about is the car parking, which seem to exert a dreary fascination over some people's imaginations.  The camera that opens the way into the car park apparently could not read some of the number plates because of the position the cars drew up in.  The solution to this is to paint markings in the road to encourage drivers to park in the right place.

More concerning, in my view, is that the ventilation does not seem to work as well as it should.  I am told that this is largely down to people not being clear on how to operate it.  Hopefully it will clear up as people get more used to the system.

The biggest problem is that the signage is currently inadequate, which is particularly unfortunate in an unfamiliar building where nobody knows where anything is.  I am told that this is deliberate.  A budget has been held back until the building is functioning, so that signage can be optimally designed.  I can understand this argument, although I think it has been taken too far.  I noticed at the Planning Committee last week that pieces of paper had been stuck to various doors to give people a clue where they were going.  The sooner proper signage goes up the better.

The final niggle I have is that there are no water dispensers on the boardroom level, which strikes me as a design mistake, although one I should think can be solved fairly easily.

Altogether for a major new building, these all seem quite minor niggles.