NW Leicestershire District Council unveil plans for '21st Century' offices

Their current offices in Whitwick Road, Coalville, have been identified as outdated and expensive to maintain.

North West Leicestershire District Council (NWLDC) said the pandemic had changed they way they worked and sped up plans to change location.

They had been planning to either renovate or build new offices but they have been scrapped in light of Covid.

Instead they are considering relocating customer services to a Coalville town centre location. Stenson House would remain as a civic/democratic hub but the 1960s office space behind could be demolished and the land eventually sold.

They said that one of the driving forces enabling the shift is the growing popularity of home working. Most of their office staff are adopting a blend of home and office working.

This has meant the current council offices are at less than 50 per cent capacity on any given working day.

As such Whitwick Business Centre could be repurposed to create a more compact, open plan office for staff to use flexibly in conjunction with homeworking.

The estimated cost of these changes would be £2.8 million, which they said is significantly less than the cost of a major renovation or a new-build council office.

They also claim the move could save taxpayers around £12million over the next 50 years.

Councillor Richard Blunt, Leader of NWLDC, said: “As part of our pandemic recovery plan we’ve seen an opportunity to improve our customer services, create a more modern and agile working space for our staff, vastly improve our carbon footprint, and make huge long term taxpayer savings on the money we spend on office accommodation.

“We pride ourselves as a council on offering value for money and spending our money wisely, and this proposal demonstrates we’re on the front foot, ready to take advantage of all we’ve learned from the pandemic for the benefit of our customers, staff and taxpayers.

“The proposals are moving forward quickly, and we will be consulting with the public later this year with a view to implementing the changes in 2022.”

The proposals are currently going through the democratic process and require full council approval. Once this is given a public consultation will begin to ensure that local people can have their say.