A fledgling Shrewsbury granite firm is still owed £6,000 for work carried out as part of the Quantum Leap geo-garden project months after completing the job.
Simon Wray, who runs Cornerstone based in Vanguard Way on the Battlefield Enterprise Park, said his company had carried out sandblasting work on parts of the geo-garden at Mardol Quay Gardens throughout October, but added he was still waiting for payment from contractors Alun Griffiths despite repeated phone calls.
He was promised he would receive a cheque earlier this week, but as the Chronicle went to press Mr Wray had still not been paid. Shropshire Council officials have confirmed the bill for the work carried out by Alun Griffiths has been paid to the Abergavenny-based company.
Mr Wray said his firm had made a plaque for the Quantum Leap sculpture as a goodwill gesture and had been offered the additional work on the geo-garden on the back of it.
The firm started trading in June last year and has just two employees on the books. Mr Wray said the Darwin project was the only job his firm worked on for the entire calendar month.
The Quantum Leap sculpture has attracted huge controversy after the Chronicle revealed last year the structure needed realigning.
More recently it has emerged the cost of the project spiralled to £483,000, having originally been estimated to cost less than half of that. Mr Wray said: “We were initially promised payment within 28 days by the site manager and I invoiced Alun Griffths on November 2, thinking we would be paid by December.
“I must have made six or seven phone calls to the firm since and have been constantly blocked from making progress. Finally I was promised on Monday I would receive a cheque the next day and it still hasn’t come, and I’m sick and tired of this.”
Dominic Wallis, Shropshire Council’s culture and leisure business development manager, said Alun Griffiths had been paid as per original contract.
No-one from Alun Griffiths Contractors Ltd was available to comment as the Chronicle went to press.
By Peter Kitchen
