New Telford council HQ plan scrapped
Wednesday 27th July 2011, 10:30AM BST.
Plans to build new civic offices as part of a £250 million transformation of Telford’s Southwater have been scrapped under council budget proposals.
Member of Telford & Wrekin Council’s cabinet last night backed the new budget which aims to tackle the authority’s debt and £35 million of Government cuts.
Labour councillors promised to deliver an emergency budget within 100 days of taking control of the council at the elections in May.
Last night’s meeting heard this had been achieved within 61 days and members approved a number of proposals for public consultation.
Labour claims the scrapping of the proposed civic offices, previously described by the Tories as the “lynchpin” to the whole project, would save the council £1.1 million a year.
Councillor Kuldip Sahota, council leader, said: “We will be saving about £3 million in revenue which will not impact on frontline services.
“One of the commitments we gave to the people out there two or three months ago was there would be no civic offices.
“We promised it and we kept it. We will be saving money on that one.”
Councillor Bill McClements, cabinet member for resources and service delivery, said: “With these budget proposals we clearly show we know the direction we want to go.”
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Finally!
Before anyone asks “will this affect the 250Million pound development in this area”, the answer is NO.
There never really was a £250M development *plan*, just simple conjecture that building a new office would attract investment to southwater.
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It’s a shame the council can’t tell us what plans they have for the space that will be vacant by not building it, considering most of the election campaign was based around ‘Tory towers’ you would have thought they would have alternative plans in place.
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So what happens to the money from the old civic offices, i thought it was suposed to be used in building the new offices?
Or has the Asda deal gone now???
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think the asda deal is still on. The council plan to move its staff to Darby house & the new Civic offices in Wellington
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Does anyone know if they are actually scrapping the construction or just not going to use the offices as civic offices when they are finished?
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So the council save the money of the building but the work to lay the foundations, the roads and the new drains is happeniong now paid for and managed by …. Telford Council.
From my contacts at the council, the asda deal is legally binding so the council will be moving out, the only question is who will be off the Wellington and who will be down the road at Darby House.
Still think a new council office in Dawley rather than another supermarket at Paddock Mount would be the best idea for regeneration but who am I….
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People seem to think that Darby House and Wellington are like a Tardis. Reality, council offices will be all over, with much travel time in between and a lot of new data infrastructure and IT required in all of them. This will also cost a fortune. The Asda deal would have provided new offices at no cost. The £250m is the Value of the total Southwater scheme, which includes all the private investments such as Hotels, Other offices, bars / restaurants, a new Multistory Car-park, a new library and a Cinema.
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all that money wasted in planning serveying wow these councils love to waste our council tax again and again. should take out of there salaries what they dont get to go through.
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could you try spelling your words correctly prior to publishing? This is embarrassing
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Could you start your sentence with an upper case letter and end your second sentence with a full stop? Who is embarrassed now?
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Wasted time and money which should have been better spent
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Councillor Bill McClements, cabinet member for resources and service delivery, said: “With these budget proposals we clearly show we know the direction we want to go.”
Really? That’d be the first time Wrekin Labour have known which direction to go in.
Officers will not know if they should go to Derby House, the new offices in Wellington or work from an old tea van at the side of the road.
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good
well done to the new cllr
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This is very good news. Building something like this in the current finnancial climate would have sent all the wrong messages. Yes the HQ may have eventually saved money but it would have taken many years to cover the cost of building it. You don’t save money by spending a whole lot more! It reminds me of the phone cold callers claming how if I buy the latest phone I will save money. I would rather save 100% and not get it at all!
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I’m glad you think so. We’ll see if you still feel that way in a few years time. Let me put it into some perspective. Until recently, I had a lovely Honda car and used to have to buy a tank and a half of petrol to travel to Scotland in it. Maintenance was becoming more and more frequent and expensive. It was time to change it. This year, I drove a new diesel car to Scotland and still had just under a quarter of a tank left when I arrived. The new engine is also expected to last at least twice as long as my old petrol one. Irrelevent? Just wait until people can no longer visit Civic Offices so easily…………..!
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good
i dont see why council staff should have a nice office , in a recession especially they should be suffering like the rest of us
a portakabin is too good for those layabouts
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Sorry Las, try finding the right portakabin when you need something from the Council and you might see it slightly differently.
Especially if your file is another office 4 miles away.
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all of you that are happy about this keep talking about councilors and council staff getting new offices.
you all seem to have forgotten that the civic offices are used by the general public to get face to face access to services like council tax queries and other similar services.
Now that all roads lead to Telford as the bus company does not comprhend that not all of us want to go to Telford on the way to anywhere in this area, then the one stop shop in telford would have been best now people will be confused as how to get to Darby house or the offices at wellington.
Just imagine someones disappointment of traipsing all the way to Darby House only to be told that the department that they want is in Wellington!!
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