Council’s plan to spend £17m on updating its headquarters
Reporter NORTHUMBERLAND County Council has unveiled plans to spend £17million on refurbishing its outdated headquarters.
County Hall in Morpeth, which was built in 1981, is set to have its interior updated to give it a new lease of life.
And once the work is complete, an entire wing of the building is to be rented out in the hope of generating income for the council.
The proposed redevelopment has been included in the local authority’s medium term financial plan, but it has not yet been approved by full council.
The Conservatives, who pledged to stay at County Hall after a dramatic win in last May’s elections, said it was a great deal for taxpayers.
A spokesman said: “We’re investing to refit a building which is internally dated but structurally sound after years of neglect from the old Labour council.
“By investing in the current building, we will be able to free up an entire wing of County Hall which can be rented out to generate income for the council. This is very much an invest to save scheme.
“It is certainly nowhere near the scale of the original Labour proposal for their vanity scheme of moving the whole operation six miles up the road to Ashington for no particular gain.”
After winning the election, plans drawn up by the previous Labour administration to move to a smaller £32m HQ in Ashington were scrapped.
It then emerged that almost £2.1m of taxpayers’ money was wasted after the council’s development company Arch had already spent the cash on the project.
Coun Grant Davey, leader of the Northumberland Labour group, accused the Conservatives of “wasting residents’ hard earned cash on ill-thought-out policies when in power”.
And he claims the plans to “patch up” County Hall and to cancel the contract to build the new HQ in Ashington will actually cost taxpayers at least £26m.
Coun Davey said: “There is seemingly no independent verification for the plan for County Hall despite the eye watering numbers involved.
“We’ve no confidence that £26m won’t rise significantly when we get to see the figures and analysis.
“Residents will compare a new HQ for £32m against the Tory’s £26m decision to patch up County Hall and decide if it is value for money.”
Coun Jeff Reid, leader of the Northumberland Liberal Democrats, also raised concerns over the proposed redevelopment. He said: “Nobody knows what it is going to cost to get out of the contracts. I was never in favour of moving to Ashington and I think they are being optimistic about being able to rent out the wing. “There are so many office buildings in North Tyneside and Newcastle that are already empty.” Tory spokesman