UNFORESEEN work to the new sound system at the Festival Hall has forced town councillors to spend another £900.

But at a special meeting of the town council last week, some councillors said they were concerned that the project did not seem to have been thought through carefully enough, and demanded assurances that there would be no more mistakes.

Town mayor George Watkinson apologised to councillors and admitted: "We should have spotted this one, long, long ago."

Chairman of the public halls committee, Ken Hick, told councillors: "There was some deviation from the specification, which to all intents and purposes went unnoticed."

He said the size of the new sound switch board was larger than anticipated and volume controls were needed for the speakers to the address system.

Mr Hick said it had proved necessary to install a hatch in the wall between the back of the sound pod and the Perkins and Slade kitchen to enable the sound equipment to be moved to the auditorium when required.

He said the cost of the work had been estimated at £825. Together with the cost of the volume controls and a four per cent contingency figure, the total extra cost would be £906.88.

He reminded councillors they had budgeted £20,000 for the renewal of the sound system, and that the cost of the equipment and installation had come out at £15,872.48

But Brian Dutton told the meeting: "I well remember asking if there were any further works which would be required to be carried out for this, and I was assured no further work would be necessary. Now we are told they are needed. This, to my way of thinking, suggests that things should have been thought through far more carefully than they were."

Mr Dutton added: "I would wish to be assured that there will not be any further budget creep."

Julie Butler said she shared Mr Dutton's concern and was surprised at the additional work: "These are supposed to be professional people installing this equipment, they should really have picked

this up."

And Paul Molloy told the meeting that sound equipment was not moved in other theatres. He said he believed that all organisations should use the town council's sound equipment and it should remain in one place.

He said he was not happy about the system and did not think the Festival Hall would achieve perfection with what he considered a "Fred Karno outfit".

Born in the Victorian era, Fred Karno transformed the music hall by creating a riot of laughter out of chaos. Thus, Fred Karno's Army came to mean a chaotic outfit.

Mr Molloy added: "The safety officer is very unhappy about the moving of this sound system, it's a Fred Karno outfit and I don't think it will do our reputation any good at all."

But Mr Hick claimed the lack of professionalism had been on the part of the town council, not the contractor. He said the Festival Hall was not just a theatre, but a multi-purpose hall used for a variety of purposes, and it was necessary to move the sound system: "By no stretch of the imagination will it be a Fred Karno outfit," he told Mr Malloy.

Councillors agreed to spend a further £906.88 on the additional work, but they resolved that no further requests be made for any building work relating to the project.

The unforeseen work was the latest criticism of the project which was slated by new town councillor Aaron Baird earlier this summer.

He branded the plans to revamp the theatre sound system as a "complete waste of public money" saying the council had gone for a very expensive specification which was "completely over the top".