Council considers scrapping £50m modern office design plans

Office design news from Morgan Lovell

Published on 27-11-2009

Reading City Council has backtracked on plans to move to a new £50 million modern office design building due to an inability to meet the costs required at present.

As a result, council officials are planning to move out of their present accommodation at Civic House - which is ramshackle and riddled with asbestos - before moving into temporary office interior space elsewhere in the city, according to GetReading.

Independent councillor Tony Jones described the new plans as a "U-turn" and said: "I have long called for the existing Town Hall to be used, together with a town centre customer hub and back office staff in other existing offices in Reading town centre."

He added while council officials have for a long time disagreed with him that the cost of the new building was excessive; one by one they have come round to his way of thinking.

Meanwhile, the Times reported Powys County Council recently uncovered a £30,000 windfall.

A box of jewellery which had been bequeathed to the council but lost five years ago was found during a routine office relocation.