Opinion: New packhouse rivals Gaudi’s Basilica in lateness
Sagrada Familia © Yrodri Goplay/Adobe Stock There is a Catholic church in Barcelona called the Basilica de la Sagrada Familia. The construction of it started in 1882.
There were a few initial hiccups with the build, then the architect, Antoni Gaudi, died in 1926, and then there was the Spanish Civil War.
Next, some anarchists broke in (in 1936), set fire to it and smashed up Gaudi’s models of the design.
You don’t need the whole history, this is a farming magazine, but the long and the short of it is that they are still building the bloody thing.
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I share that with you because, as someone who is trying to build a new cut flower packhouse and cold store, I have a lot of sympathy for those Spaniards.
One hundred and forty years passes jolly quickly when you are trying to co-ordinate consultants, lawyers, planners, builders, material providers and utility companies around a common aim.
For those of you who watch Grand Designs, our project is now at that familiar stage where the client is unshaven, living in a caravan, his wife has run off with the builder and he’s trying to sell his clothes to raise a deposit for some polished concrete kitchen worktops.
If you see me in the street, avoid me – my conversational range is restricted to talking about the building.
This week I have been obsessed with toilet cubicles. Did you realise that there are people driving up and down the UK in Ford Focuses who devote their whole lives to sanitary ware and “washroom solutions”.
The principle behind this new building was simple enough.
We wanted to show a long-term commitment to our customers, we needed space to expand for the future, and we wished to be able to use energy and to accommodate our staff in the best, most efficient way possible.
I am also firmly of the opinion that it is jolly sensible to borrow lots of money when inflation is high. I’m reaching the age where I haven’t got that much time left to pay off big capital projects.
There is a calculation that we often forget in farming – investments carry risk with them, but not investing also carries a risk.
In times of rampant inflation, it is impossible to become wealthier by economising, and rather than tightening our belts we should be bringing forward expenditure, expanding faster to meet changing demands and investing in things that go up in value.
I’m not the only person who has cottoned on to this, of course, and that explains most of the pain we have had with our building project.
The poor availability of building materials, the lead times for ordering, and the hikes in prices have been difficult to juggle.
Other major factors, such as electricity grid connections, fire regulations and the handling of roof water are significantly more complex than they would have been five years ago, as issues such as the Grenfell Tower disaster, flooding and the surge in renewable energy generation have led to major recent changes in regulations and procedures.
Who knows if this investment will turn out to be a wise one? At least I won’t have to spend my old age wishing that I had taken more risks. If things go well, we will be operational early in the new year.
If, like Antoni Gaudi, the building ends up killing me first, at least it’s an appropriate mausoleum to bury me in.