Council has apologised after street sweeper crashes into 190-year-old hotel

Council has apologised after street sweeper crashes into 190-year-old hotel
Portico at Lowther Hotel, in Goole, was shunted out of position by sweeper
Has been estimated the damage will cost up to £10,000 to fix

By
James Rush

PUBLISHED:

17:15 GMT, 31 July 2013

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UPDATED:

19:41 GMT, 31 July 2013

This is the moment a council street sweeper caused up to £10,000 of damage after crashing into a 190-year-old Grade II listed hotel which had survived a World War Two bombing raid.

The portico at the Lowther Hotel in Goole, East Yorkshire, had managed to remain unscathed since it was built in 1824.

But it was shunted out of position by the street sweeper as it attempted to make its way through a gap between the pillar and a 4×4 car.

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Damage: The street cleaner damaged the portico at the Lowther Hotel in Goole, while trying to fit through this gap

Tight fit: The street cleaner appears to be too large to get through the gap as it makes contact with the portico

Too close for comfort: The pillar twists out of position as the street cleaner makes its way past

On its way: The street sweeper appears to continue on its journey after damaging the pillar

A structural engineer has now estimated the cost of fixing the damage to be between £5,000 and £10,000.

East Riding of Yorkshire Council has since apologised to the hotel following the incident last Thursday.

Hotel manager Rik Duckworth, 27, said: ‘I looked at the CCTV and I was amazed at what I was seeing and I didn’t know whether to be angry, upset or just laugh.

‘If the sweeper would have twisted the pillar by another three inches, the full portico could have collapsed and crushed anything in its path.

‘The incident was not brought to our attention for another 40 minutes, and we had around 50 guests arriving for breakfast meetings walking under the entrance. It could have been catastrophic.

‘I had a phone call from a member of staff saying that the portico had been twisted, and I thought they were joking at first.

Expensive: A structural engineer has estimated it could cost between £5,000 and £10,000 to fix the damage

Apology: East Riding of Yorkshire Council has since apologised to the hotel following the incident last Thursday

Historic: The Grade II listed hotel was built in 1824 and survived a World War Two bombing raid

‘I phoned the police who cordoned off the area and I looked through the CCTV to find it was a road sweeper.

‘I was angry to see that the sweeper had just driven off without any apology given at the time. There must have been some force and power behind the sweeper to cause the pillar to twist.’

The Lowther was bought by Mr Duckworth’s parents Howard and Julie in 2008.

Business: The parents of hotel manager Rik Duckworth (pictured) bought the building in 2008 and have since ploughed £2m and three years’ work into restoring it

They have since ploughed £2m and three years work into restoring the hotel.

But plans to install a £1.5m 400-seater extension in about 18 months have now been put on hold following the incident.

Mr Duckworth has said with the hotel looking at months of repair work, planned weddings at the site have been put in jeopardy.

He said: ‘The entrance to the hotel is one of the main draws to it, as we recreated the luxurious Georgian feel of the place with our investment.

‘I have weddings booked in August and now a lot of the photos and their overall day experience is now going to be spoilt by this incident.

‘The hotel has been up for a very long time and we were bombed by Zeppelin on August 9, 1915, and it blew out all the windows, but it has taken a bit of modern technology to cause this.

‘We want to get this fixed as soon as we possibly can but we’re waiting for the report from the structural engineer first. The hotel is currently covered in scaffolding and it looks like a building site rather than a place to stay.’

Stonemason experts who have worked at York Minster have been brought in to assess the damage.

The street sweeper was operated by the East Riding of Yorkshire Council, which has said the matter is with its insurance company.

The authority apologised in a statement for what it called ‘a regrettable incident’.

The council said: ‘The authority’s building control officers have been sent to Goole to inspect the damage and help ensure public safety, and we will work closely with the hotel to rectify the situation as soon as possible.’