£600k spend at council base sparks row (From York Press)
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£600k spend at Hazel Court council base sparks row
9:00am Tuesday 16th October 2012 in News
By Mark Stead, Political Reporter
MORE than £600,000 is to be spent on refurbishing a six-year-old council base in York – despite claims from councillors that money is being wasted on the scheme.
City of York Council says the work at its Hazel Court facility, which houses staff and a waste recycling centre, is necessary to make it “fit for purpose” once the authority leaves a string of buildings when its new £43.8 million West Offices HQ is completed.
As well as moving out of its St Leonard’s Place offices, the council also plans to leave Guildhall, St Anthony’s House and its office in York Road, Acomb, meaning space needs to be found for about 200 staff as well as 47 councillors.
The adaptations to Hazel Court, off James Street, will cost £618,000, but officials said the move would save £235,000 a year by leaving the other buildings.
The scheme was voted through at a full meeting of the authority last week, but Osbaldwick councillor Mark Warters described the expenditure on Hazel Court – which cost £1.3 million to build – as “an abomination”.
He said: “We are wasting money on a vanity project at a building which has only been up five minutes. The work involves removing partitions at Hazel Court, but at the same time partitions are being installed at West Offices. If there is £618,000 available to spend, it should be spent on frontline services, not fancy offices.”
Bishopthorpe councillor John Galvin said the money could be used to allow the council to remain at Guildhall instead.
The council said other organisations, such as York Citizens Advice Bureau and North Yorkshire Police, were set to use space at West Offices, and the work at Hazel Court would mean increased and “more flexible” office space as well as allowing it to operate as a “disaster recovery site” for the council in emergencies.
Coun Julie Gunnell, cabinet member for corporate services, said: “We have not got the money to maintain Guildhall or invest in it and we cannot accommodate all staff at West Offices, so we are becoming a more streamlined council and saving money by moving into just two buildings.”
Comments(10)
Whistlejacket
says...
11:16am Tue 16 Oct 12
That's an awful lot of desks for an organisation that employs about 5,500 staff. How much supervision do binmen and dinner ladies require?
atorycouncil2014
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12:06pm Tue 16 Oct 12
eboracum99
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1:51pm Tue 16 Oct 12
eboracum99
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2:03pm Tue 16 Oct 12
Scarlet Pimpernel
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3:10pm Tue 16 Oct 12
The building is only five years old and is not open plan. Kersten England wants it to be open plan like West Offices, so that they have a consistent corporate style. The excuse that it creates extra space is nonsense, a handful of extra workspaces are created at a colosal cost which is massively disproportionate and has minimal benefits.
At a time when the council have closed Beckfield Lane tip, and stopped care to 184 needy residents they are using the cuts politically to hurt residents and blame the government. Meanwhile the waste money like water on their own inessential needs.
It's time Alexander and England were given their marching orders. York Council's A&E putting the city into intensive care and using us for notches on their CV's. GET THEM OUT NOW !
Scarlet Pimpernel
says...
3:18pm Tue 16 Oct 12
Coun Julie Gunnell, cabinet member for corporate services, said: “We have not got the money to maintain Guildhall or invest in it and we cannot accommodate all staff at West Offices, so we are becoming a more streamlined council and saving money by moving into just two buildings.”What a load of guff ? Do they really think that we are that stupid ? Who told this woman to say this rubbish, and why have they rented an entire floor out others at West Offices when they haven't got the space for their own staff. The ineptitude is staggering. Those responsible for this c*ck-up should lose their jobs.
piaggio1
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11:38pm Tue 16 Oct 12
look at the council employee,s last name?? think of a certain church.(not english)?? ????????? stop it stop it ,dont worry IT will all come out in the end
Magicman!
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12:19am Wed 17 Oct 12
eboracum99 wrote:There has been a lot of work done on street lighting, replacing well over 1,000 columns with new ones that won't go rusty due to dog pi$$... the work was so much that at one point there were three cranes in use to plant or pull columns, and two or three crews from other depots working in York.
Sorry i went on a but if they have the money for hazel court why not for litter bins, street lighting and street cleaning?
As for Hazel Court, perhaps the council should have got more land for the depot in the first place, instead of shoehorning everybody into as small a space as possible and then slapping the 'eco' label on it so that people look upon it with favour as though it's doing something good - when all it is is a vehicle compound that looks like a prison with some wood cladding on!
m dee
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5:51pm Wed 17 Oct 12
The previous Council leaders stated the high cost of the new headquarters was partly funded by the savings from no longer renting all these other buildings over the next 30 years, how many times do they think they can use the same money.
This amount could have been better spent on things like all the residents waiting for adaptions due to disability as an example.
boroboy66 says...
9:33am Tue 16 Oct 12