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How Telford & Wrekin Council’s new HQ could look
Thursday 9th September 2010, 6:15PM BST.
How Telford & Wrekin Council's new civic offices in the town centre could look
This image shows how Telford & Wrekin Council’s new civic offices in the town centre could look.
A report outlining the design of the new building, which will help to kickstart the regeneration of the Southwater area, will be considered by the council’s cabinet.
The authority said its new offices would be built at no cost to the taxpayers with the cost met by the sale of the council’s current civic offices site to Asda.
The report reveals the “concept design” of the new civic offices and showcases the overall appearance and size of the new mixed use development of 8,000sqm of office accommodation and 500sqm of retail space.
The new building will help the council reduce maintenance costs and remove significant maintenance liabilities.
It would be cheaper to run and save £3.1m in repairs and maintenances costs over the next 10 years, council bosses said.
It would also mean the council no longer needed to spend £3.25m on internal refurbishment of the existing 1970s building.
Councillor Andrew Eade, council leader, said: “This is another exciting stage in the regeneration of the Southwater area, which at no cost to the local taxpayer, will kickstart the wider regeneration of the town centre to make this a living heart for Telford.
“The new build will be much more cost efficient to run, using environmental technology and with reduced maintenance costs.
“Our goal is to ensure that the new civic offices bring together more services under one roof so that it is easier for residents to do business with the council.”
The cabinet will consider the report on Tuesday and any decision reached will form the basis of a reserved matter planning application on September 22.
l Object — See Page 16
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That looks pretty cool – puts me in mind of the Grand Arch at La Defense :)
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Absolutely disgusting eyesore and a total waste of money!!!
West Mercia Police are having to cut 300 jobs to save money and all the TWDC want to do is waste waste waste even more cash…..
Why not do the decent thing and settle for an older building god knows there are plenty of those available in Telford..i.e.:- all over Halesfield and give the cash to shore up OUR police force…You know those people who help when you get burgled etc……No doubt the TWDC will have a private security firm inhouse because OUR police force will not have the man power to help!!!
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so what your saying is the money that has come from the sale of land has to go towards the police.
how about you sell your house and give the cash to the police then move out of Telford, then we don’t have to listen to you make stupid suggestions and criticise people that like the design.
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just as ugly as the rest of telford then…
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I’d hardly put the Shirehall in the category of “architectural masterpiece”.
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where is the new council building being built?
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the greek approach then
lump of concrete paint it white and assume it looks ok then…
suits telford at least its devoid of architectural style
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same as the reply for comment #2
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What on earth does the Tories think they are doing? people are losing their jobs, their homes yet this tory lot want to spend our money and council staff time on this??!! in 10 years time it will look outdated and a eyesaw!!! Get these wasteful tories out!
oh and the Shropshire star reporting goes to show how biased they are to this tory party!
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I believe you’re missing the point here. This is a massive improvement for the face of Telford and in the long run, the council will end up saving money.
As it says in the article, no tax payers money is being used to fund this project.
This regeneration along with the re-generation of the local borough towns is a very good thing for Telford residents and is bringing the town up to scratch.
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Forgive my naivety, but please could you explain what party politics have got to do with this?
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In what conceivable way could the proposed building be uglier than the present drudge-fest? Cheaper, better, nicer… what’s not to like?
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Heather, Labour lost the Borough because, after 35 years of ineptitude, malice and indifference, the people spoke. They said: “Go away, Labour, we are sick of you.”
Wasteful Tories? Nothing to say about the wasted decades of Labour’s time in office in Telford and Wrekin? No. I thought not.
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and there goes Matt churning out his useual rhetoric. The same old line he’sbeen saying since 2007, about time you came up with a new argument rather than your antiquated statement, but thats not going to happen with you.
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Will be interesting see if Andrew Eade et al are still in Charge after next Mays elections, these will be held post cuts made my the current government. The Tories could be very unpopular by then.
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It just looks like a pile of boxes piled ontop of one another. Another eye sore. Wouldn’t a more tradition design be more viable in the long run a timeless design rather than a design that will be out of date in 20yrs time.
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An eyesore? Well, Telford gets what Telford deserves.
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fair play people who critisise should READ the article, this will SAVE taxpayers money and i think in most towns you go to the civic centre is the main nice central building in town, so we should have good architecture and posh looking council offices like you get in the continent with historic civic halls this improves the whole towns appearance and therefore makes it more attractive too
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Great design, they wont be a laughing stock with the rest of the country like Shrewsbury was with it’s warehouse pastiche!
I am a bit surprised however. I had heard that there was talk that they were amalgamating with Shropshire Council.
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As opposed to Tefords Chav & crime pastiche you mean?
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The design looks ok, as long as the materials used in the cladding are quality it should be alright.
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look its progress alright, what ever you think its an improvement on the current telford skyline and frankly we should be celebrating the fact than ANNY construction projects are happening right now given what the CONDEMS are doing to the building sector with their economic vandalism
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Paint it Burberry & have Kerry Katona or Katie Price open it – that’s how to win the heart & mind of your average Telf.
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Lighten up, Farmer Giles
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To be honest, I think it looks OK. It looks functional and modern – a good start to a government building.
Mind you, it does remind me of the intake vents of wind tunnels at places like Ames Research Facility…..add your own punchline :)
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wonder how often it’ll need painting and how much that’ll cost, white buildings usually tend to look grubby quickly in this environment….so it’s either an expense or won’t be maintained.
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Painting? I sincerely hope that’s stone cladding and not painted concrete.
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I’m all for this new building providing they stick to their claim that it will cost the tax payer nothing. Given that T&WC continually refuse to tell us how much they’re making from the sale of the existing land we won’t know, until it’s too late.
The idea of it ‘kick-starting’ the regeneration of the area is laughable though, this is about the council getting a swanky new office and nothing else, they should stop pretending otherwise. Hark already proposed to help bring a Billion pound into the area but the Council wanted all the glory so poo pooed the idea and now claim a measly £300 Million will be invested. Forget party politics, everyone in power at T&WC are cut from the same self-serving cloth.
As a side note, can the Shrewsbury Vs. Telford and Telford Vs. Shrewsbury kids please give it a rest, there are good and bad parts to BOTH our towns and we should all be happy that neither of us are Wolverhampton. :)
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But it will technically kick start the regeneration of this area. It will be the first new building built as part of the Southwater scheme, it will facilitate the draining and relocation of the lake and creation of the new high street.
The owners of the Shopping Centre are still aiming to implement The Round but these are largely two different schmes which can both happen independently.
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What a waste of money! Why not save the money spend on building this by just leasing a building where you don’t have to pay for repairs. Surely Hark or Telford International Centre can build something with their own money for the council instead – it would make sense for both businesses.
Ridiculous
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I don’t know Telford particularly well but on a visit there a few years ago with a group of children we walked around a lake.I think we had to pay to go into Wonderland so this was our best/cheapest option at the time, shopping not really appealing to the children.
Is this the lake you are referring to Grey?
Anyway we walked around the lake which was fairly attractive except the deserted shopping trolley and came across a whole load of baby grass snakes. We interrupted a grass snake with a frog half swallowed which it decided to regurgitate so the frog lived to see another day!
It ended up being a great visit, the spider web like climbing apparatus being popular too but I wouldn’t like to think these grass snakes are going to be ousted if this lake is to be filled in.
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There are a few lakes in the area. The one I was referring to is immeadiately outside of the bowling alley with the timber decking around it and the pedal boats.
It doesn’t look like the most perfect lake for biodiversity and a new lake will be provided behind the new council offices.
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That’s hardly a lake by the sound of it, Grey, although I’m not sure which one you mean. I heard Randlay lake was going to be filled in which is avery large “pool” with lots of wildlife and has been a popular angling spot for decades…shame on them if they are filling that one in.
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There are plenty of empty office buildings in Telford so why not use one of those rather than spending so much money on this? Why build a much bigger building at a time when staff are having to be cut back? The most fashionable buildings of today will be the most outdated looking in 5 or ten years time. I would have thought that we would have learnt that lesson by now. This is the reason why Telford is having to “regenerated” less than 25 years since the centre opened.
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Lots of negative comments here from a small minded few who have formed massive opinions from a small newspaper article… without knowing all the factors!
I suspect that this new building will save millions in the long run being more efficent to run and a lot greener than the current concrete cube that is Malinslee House!
It will be a massive face lift for a dated looking Southwater in Telford and it aint gonna cost me or you a penny.
When Telford town centre was being built up in the 60′s, the design of the whole thing was wrong…. nows the chance to put it right and bring telford in to the 21st Century.
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