18/08/2020
Latest News!!
It is with much regret Bunker 13 must announce a breakdown in communication between Bunker 13 and the Central Grange resident’s management company (The Kenton Management Company) together with their chosen residential management agents Brannen & Partners. This has led to Bunker 13 being locked out of the bunker simply due to their total refusal to communicate with us. Totally unnecessary when a simple meeting could have solved all alleged health and safety issues and we could have moved forward working together. It is our strong suspicion that this is in fact a deliberate move to try and keep the bunker locked up and mothballed until hopefully people forget about it to save time and money by the management. (It will in fact have the opposite effect).
It is BUNKER 13’s view that this is a very short sighted plan which will ultimately unfortunately cost the residents of Central Grange in management fees when the bunker is inspected by outside agencies to check its preservation is being continued. We will never allow this policy to be carried out without a fight and in the interim we will ensure full scrutiny of the bunkers condition and preservation by involving Newcastle City Council and Historic England. The actions of the management will also deprive future generations learning about WW2/Cold War and benefiting from a local historic asset. London’s Bunker is open for this purpose, so should Newcastle’s especially as the only other surviving intact. WW2 RAF HQ operations room, both bunkers are situated within a residential development and can be managed to minimise the impact on residents which London has already proven.
As a direct result of being prevented access, we were forced to remove our dehumidifiers from the bunker which were preventing damage to the original fixtures and fittings also consequently our internal caretaking work has stopped. This is of EXTREME concern as the emergency pumps within the bunker that were fitted after the catastrophic flooding of approx. 7 years ago, now require urgent attention. The most important pump failed just prior to us being locked out. The emergency battery backup system is also not functioning for these pumps. The management company have since carried out some work on the pumps. However, details of the work have not been supplied to Bunker 13. This is despite a chance face to face discussion on site between the management company appointed site manager and a Director of Bunker 13, in this meeting the manager agreed to supply photos and information about the work being carried out to us. No information has been supplied to date weeks later.
The last flooding of the bunker happened when the previous management company took the same action preventing us from monitoring internal conditions within the bunker. Let us hope for the sake of the bunkers historic original interior this doesn’t happen again but also for the residents of Central Grange who are responsible for footing the bill for pumping out the building and costly repairs to a Grade 2 historic building. The last pumping out was carried out free of charge by Tyne & Wear Fire service who did a great job which we very much appreciated but, they stated they would not be able to do this again free. The costs at that time would have been approx. £400 per fire tender per hour and we had 8 tenders on site for a period and at least 4 tenders all day.
Rest assured we are doing all we can to regain access to the bunker and continue our preservation work however this is a serious setback that has far reaching implications to our ability to continue funding applications potentially halting the whole preservation process.
To any residents of CENTRAL GRANGE reading this we will keep you informed about A NEW RESIDENTS group being formed. We have heard many of you are not happy with the management
