Coronavirus lockdown saves Shropshire Council £200,000 in travel costs
More than £200,000 has been saved in travel costs for council staff throughout the pandemic, as the authority says its transition to a virtual work force "was achieved with minimal disruption".
Shropshire Council has lifted the lid on the impact of the pandemic on its workforce and says that around 2,600 workers and councillors were able to work from home within five days due to its previous investment in "digital transformation".
Prior to the crisis the usual daily ‘working remotely’ figure was in the region of 500 to 600 people.
Figures included in a report to be considered by the council's audit committee on Friday also show some significant savings in the costs for staffing throughout the pandemic.
Mileage claims were down 49 per cent from April to June – with costs reducing from £339,952 for the same period in 2019 to £172,071.
Staff travel costs for buses and train journeys have also seen huge savings, down from £37,308 in 2019 to £5,707.
The developments come as the council has agreed to look at selling Shirehall and moving to a smaller base, and allowing more staff to work from home.
Speaking earlier this month Council leader, Councillor Peter Nutting said: "We need to move on and I think everyone accepts that.”
Other impacts have been evident with the number of printer and photocopies produced by council staff down from two million in March 2019 to 752,000 for the same month this year.
Utilities costs have also fallen hugely with electricity bills for the council estate falling by around £30,000 a month, and gas bills by £14,000.
The report indicates that moving some staff to work from home could result in significant savings for the council.
It states: "Shropshire Council has the capacity to accommodate 2,010 members of staff in its 18 key office buildings.
"The three largest buildings are Shirehall, Mount McKinley and Ptarmigan. Prior to the crisis, these three buildings accommodated 1,380 people and cost £1.36m per year to run.
"In July, council took the decision to develop a new, smaller, more cost efficient civic hub to replace the Shirehall by 2023. One of the key reasons that this move has been possible is the development and use of technology by staff to work from home and in the community, meaning less office space is required."
Speaking at a full council meeting earlier this month where councillors agreed to look at moving from Shirehall, Councillor Steve Charmley, deputy leader and portfolio holder for assets, said: "The climate emergency has exposed the inefficiencies of the building which were well documented at the time, and it’s come to light that it’s simply not viable to turn the building into the environmentally positive building which we all want in the current day.
"The running costs of the building are about £1.2 million a year so just in financial terms the viability is challenged.
"The current Covid-19 pandemic and the floods have focussed minds and changed the behaviours of ourselves and staff as a council on how we can operate in the future."
