Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Back to drawing board as move to Wincheap ditched
Council to develop new plans for relocation
A multi-million pound plan to move Canterbury’s city council offices to an industrial estate in Wincheap is now officially off the table.
The authority had planned to relocate its run-down Military Road HQ to a larger base on the city’s outskirts, demolishing its current home to make way for houses.
But with the Covid pandemic leaving a £12 million hole in the council’s finances, as well as 80% of staff working from home, the proposal has been ditched. A cross-party consensus for the decision emerged last week at the authority’s policy committee when 13 councillors met online for the first time since the third national lockdown was announced.
Council leader Ben Fitter-harding (Con) said: “Given everything that has happened we do need to take a completely fresh look at this. “There is no point ploughing on regardless. It is a situation where our council has completely changed and we need something different for the future.” Canterbury council will engage in talks with the owners of three Wincheap retail units, Carpets 4 Less, Bamboo Tiger and Beds 4 Us about the u-turn.
Under the council’s original plans last February, the superstores were expected to be demolished to make way for the new council HQ, putting dozens
of jobs at risk.
Tricia Marshall, the deputy chief executive of Canterbury City Council, said the pandemic has given the authority an opportunity to reassess what office space it needs.
She said: “It is very clear that the council will need much less accommodation than it envisaged back in February 2020. “Canterbury’s Tories, Labour and Liberal Democrats gave their support at the meeting. Cllr Michael Dixey, leader of the Lib Dems, said: “I say good riddance to this vanity project.”
His deputy, Cllr Nick EdenGreen, “congratulated” the officers for the changed approach, but warned: “Let’s give certainty to the traders on the Wincheap estate.” Labour leader Cllr Alan Baldock said: “It is definitely right to have a complete rethink about this.” Meanwhile, Cllr Neil Baker (Con) said the u-turn makes “perfect sense” but called for a quick solution.
Fresh proposals for any relocation, as well as the future of the current offices, will be put to councillors soon.
It is estimated that about £1.6million would need to be spent over the next 10 years to keep the buildings “watertight”, while half of the site is unusable. Ms Marshall said: “The building is less occupied than it was previously, the maintenance requirements are still there and it is still a big site that can be used to provide much-needed housing.”
‘It is a situation where our council has completely changed and we need something different for the future’