Shady goings-on at council HQ as staff use brollies to cut glare
IT’S considered unlucky to put an umbrella up indoors.
But bad luck was the last thing on the minds of council staff suffering in the heat last week.
Workers at Highland Council’s new offices in Fort William have been forced to use brollies to shade themselves from the sun.
A glass frontage and large skylights in the roof turned the Charles Kennedy Building into a giant greenhouse.
The B-listed former secondary school, which is named after the late Liberal Democrat MP, has been modernised and extended and now serves as the council’s Lochaber area headquarters.
However, the amount of glass means staff were unable to see their computer screens because of glare from the sun.
Niall Maclean, councillor for Fort William and Ardnamurchan, said that he had been made aware of the issues and that measures were being taken in a bid to solve the problem.
He added: ‘I know there has been lots of talk about the glass roof and how it is going to be controlled.
‘There was meant to be a shading system put in but it never was due to trying to control the costs of the building, as it had started to go over budget.
‘The bottom line for me is that the building needs to be fit for purpose.
‘We can’t have staff who are expected to work in either too hot or too cold conditions. This needs to be fixed.’
Highland Council said special film would be fitted to the windows to prevent glare. Curtains have also been installed to try to solve the problem.
The former school had lain empty for 25 years before it was converted into the council offices.
Mr Kennedy, who led the Liberal Democrats between 1999 and 2006, served as a Highland MP for 32 years, latterly representing the constituency of Ross, Skye and Lochaber. He died in 2015, aged 55.