Friday 22.11.2024 ΚΕΡΚΥΡΑ

Company contracted to renovate Yialinas Art Gallery withdraws

Yialinas Art Gallery
08 Dec 2022 / 11:16

CORFU. The contractor has asked to break the contract and Mayor Meropi Ydraiou will meet with the Technical Works Department this afternoon.

Central Corfu Mayor Meropi Ydraiou will be meeting with the Technical Works Department and the responsible Deputy Mayor Nikos Kalogeros this afternoon to discuss, amongst other things, the renovation of the Aggelos Yialinos Art Gallery, which is a listed building, following the contractor's request to withdraw from the contract.

The Technical Works Department and the Municipal Legal Department are already looking into the contractor's request and the reasons given for the withdrawal.

The two departments are expected to give the local authority an official update so that the next steps can be decided.

When the problems began

The contractor began work in November 2021 and Ms. Ydraiou and Mr. Kalogeros conduction an inspection on 21/1/2022 to confirm that the work was progressing without any problems or negligence and that it was on schedule with no outstanding technical or financial issues.

However, a few months later problems started to appear with regard to the renovation of this unique building in the Upper Square in the heart of Corfu Town.

On 6 June the contractor asked for the scheduled time to be extended by six months citing increases in the price of materials and the energy crisis. The Finance Committee accepted the request and an extension was given until 11 December.

Meanwhile there were breaks in the work until the sub-contract for excavation, construction and demolition waste was signed by the Municipality and the company that would manage the waste. As a result now work was done in all these months.

Unanimous decision

At a meeting on 15 November the Finance Committee decided unanimously to accept funding from the 'Ionian Islands 2014-2020' Business Programme for the project "Renovation of the listed building Aggelos Yialinas Art Gallery in Corfu" with a cost of over €2.9m.

The application for the withdrawal from the contract was submitted by a judicial officer on Tuesday 6 December.