Post by Teddy Bear on May 21, 2006 21:59:11 GMT
Just how many people does it take to change a BBC light bulb?
By Chris Hastings
(Filed: 21/05/2006)
The sorry saga of a broken light has illuminated the scale of "bureaucratic waste" at the BBC and cost licence fee payers thousands of pounds.
For more than a month the iconic sign at BBC Television Centre on Wood Lane, west London, has been out of action.
But what should have been a simple job, to repair a light illuminating the second "i", has descended into farce.
The dimmed second "i" in the sign. So far two outside companies have been hired to fix the problem
For where once it would have been a job for a couple of in-house technicians with a few hours to spare, the project has sunk into confusion involving outside contractors and spiralling costs.
So far two outside companies have been hired to fix the problem. One has been tasked with erecting a series of hydraulic platforms to reach the sign, 50 feet up in the air. The other is evaluating the damage.
It is estimated that it costs the corporation £1,100 each time this procedure is carried out. Only once a full assessment is made will the BBC's own staff decide what course of action to take before handing the repair work to one of the "outsourcing" contractors.
The expense has infuriated staff, who in last week's issue of the in-house magazine Ariel complained that in the past the problem would have been solved by a couple of workmen in a cradle.
Last year it emerged that the BBC had been charged £57 to change a light bulb by a property management company. The BBC said the charge had been an error and had been corrected.
A spokesman defended the repair work on the sign which, he said, was not just about replacing light bulbs. He said the BBC was now thinking of rewiring the sign or replacing it altogether.
