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City council’s cost saving plan to put Town Hall up for sale and bring services under one roof
Peterborough's Town Hall building on Bridge Street. Picture: Peterborough ET
Peterborough Town Hall could be sold in an astonishing move to save money and spearhead a job creation boom in the city.
Civic chiefs want to sell or lease the 82-year-old Town Hall in Bridge Street and move staff to a purpose-built office on a new site elsewhere in the city.
If the town hall could be sold or leased it would allow Peterborough City Council to save millions of pounds on running costs, energy charges and maintenance fees.
It is expected that a new 130,000 sq ft office to replace the Town Hall and other council buildings will be built and will be of sufficient size to encourage other job-creating businesses to relocate to the city.
But under a sale or lease deal, council leaders intend to keep the ceremonial rooms – the Mayor’s Parlour, Council Chamber and Reception Room for civic meetings and functions.
Council leaders were yesterday remaining tight-lipped about where a new council headquarters could be built.
But, the council’s medium term financial plan refers to proposals for the creation of a civic hub near Peterborough railway station which would help to drive the creation of the planned Station Quarter – a £500 million gateway to the city made up of high quality offices, civic building, living accommodation and other public buildings.
The town hall proposal forms part of the agenda for a meeting of the full council next Wednesday and recommends that other council buildings – Bayard Place and Stuart House – also be sold or leased.
Most of the council’s 1,179 members of staff would be housed in the new building to be constructed privately and leased to the local authority.
It would also be an environmentally friendly building and cheaper to run than the existing offices and its central location would mean it was still accessible to members of the public.
Council leader Cllr Marco Cereste refused to say where a new office would be built.
He added: “By bringing all our main services under one roof it will enable the council to become even more efficient and save taxpayers’ money to be reinvested in opportunities that will allow our city to continue to grow and thrive. Currently the council operates services from a range of buildings.
“We have come to a point where we have to make a decision over the direction we go to avoid significant future financial risk.
“This is not just about minimising risk as there is also the opportunity to actively promote growth.”
Cllr Stephen Goldspink, group leader of the English Democrats, said: “It could be risky. The funding of local government could change, and then we would be left with a building that is either too big or too small.”
Labour group leader Cllr Nazim Khan said: “To let us know about this matter just seven days before voting is not enough time.”
Cllr Nick Sandford, Liberal Democrats group leader, said: “The council has sold a lot of services and doesn’t need as much space. The new office must be in the centre of the city.”
FACTFILE: possible savings
Peterborough City Council’s existing property portfolio includes Town Hall (Bridge Street), Bayard Place (Broadway), Midgate House (Midgate) and Stuart House (St John’s Street).
It costs £2.9 million to run - but estimates suggest it would cost up to £9 million to maintain by 2035. But if it was to lease a new 130,000 square foot single ‘office hub’ from the financial year 2015 to 2016, the overall cost would be £5 million.
That cost would rise to an estimated £8 million by 2035.
Council leader Cllr Marco Cereste said: “It would be cheaper to run and more accessible.
“We would not be paying for the building, but leasing it. But Town Hall’s ceremonial rooms are part of our heritage so we will not be moving them.”
Read the city council’s Medium Term Financial Strategy 2011/2012 - 2015/2016 report as a PDF, page 16 mentions “The Cabinet has been working on the budget proposals since June 2010. It has based its work on the following principles, actions and priorities:
• Reviewing all the buildings the council owns and uses and ensuring they are being used as efficiently and effectively as possible and any that are no longer needed are disposed of;”
The report can be found on the Peterborough City Council website under: Council and democracy > Our finances.
Do you agree with the plans? What do you think the Town Hall could become?
Contact our news team by email news@peterboroughtoday.co.uk, telephone 01733 588719, on Twitter - @peterboroughet or use our Have Your Say - online form
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Comments
There are 48 comments to this article
Page 1 of 4
Zanni
Monday, October 10, 2011 at 09:06 AMWell Marco has come up with some wacky ideas but selling the Town Hall takes the biscuit. Don't tell me - someone who doesn't live in the city or consultants came up with this idea. So its going to save a million at BEST estimates. I suspect thats unlikely considering the cost of moving and all the other costs invovled with relocating. If the new building were to be leased back its going to cost more in the longer run, why not buy it out right from the word go? And don't tell me its going to be built by Larkpoint or one of its subsidiaries...
I have a nutter living next door
Friday, October 7, 2011 at 06:27 PMBlah ! Blah ! Blah ! Here we go again. When will the people of Peterborough wake up and smell the coffee?. Cereste at the helm only means one thing. He is taking this ship down and we are all going with him. Stanground, you had your opportunity to rid us of this bloodsucker at the last election. I hope your guilt of keeping this rotten apple in the Town hall will make you think again at the next election. Shame on you.
gr1oo
Thursday, October 6, 2011 at 05:38 PMI seem to remember that Bayard Place stood empty for years until the council became a unitary authority and took over Social Services in 1998. Seems like they might have difficulty selling it off (or did they only just lease it?) Perhaps it would make more sense to link these services back with Cambridgeshire. We would then have a much smaller council (especially now that Strategic Resources is being outsourced (watch this space for another tranche of redundancy from newly acquired council services in April 2012) so all the remaining staff can be crammed back into the Town Hall - job done and probably a lot cheaper than these schemes devised by the Peterboorugh mafia.
smith
Thursday, October 6, 2011 at 04:25 PMFairy dust will make everything ok.
Mavis Enderby
Thursday, October 6, 2011 at 03:23 PMI think Peterborough Could lead the way with its new iconic vision - Why not demolish Kings College, Cambridge - it is very old and quite unsuited to modern teaching requirements and replace it with something more sensible that could be funded by fast food franchises? Then the Houses of Parliament could come down and be replaced with efficient and much cheeper pre-fabricated office units (with sponsorship logos negotiated obviusly)? And why not put a PFI project in place for a replacement for Buckingham Palace - the expensive and disfunctional old one could be used as student flats? We could call this imaginative thrust forward into a brilliant shiny future "The Peterborough Effect"
ladyska
Thursday, October 6, 2011 at 01:30 PMLooking at the comments below it seems quite clear to me that the people of Peterborough should be running this city rather than the idiots that come up with these stupid ideas!
WaxiMaxi
Thursday, October 6, 2011 at 11:28 AMEvening Telegraph 7th June 2011 - Bayard Palace to get new air conditioning installed costing the taxpayer £900,000. And now they want to move out? How much is the air con going to cost in your new buildings? You have made redundant hundreds of council workers and then pay to have ex Woolworths buildings refurbished so tk maxx can profit, You spend millions on water fountains and then leave them turned off most of the time, You want a bus only lane in the center of town when it is not needed. And all this time you go on about saving money. You stash £1million in a mortgage scheme whilst cutting public services. I have got to hand it to you PCC you throw money around like it's growing on trees and then play the "we're trying save money" card. Deal with the real problems this city has and stop consulting Paul Daniels for your next magic trick. You never know he might pull electric charging points out of his hat next.
Mizuno
Thursday, October 6, 2011 at 12:05 AMAll old properties need to be modernised at various stages of their lifetime. Refurbish the Town Hall and make it fit for purpose. The Town Hall should remain where it is as part of the city's heritage. Forget leasing a new build etc - PCC should learn from the debacle of the new City Hospital.
Lord Kenneth
Wednesday, October 5, 2011 at 11:19 PMComment removed by moderator
Ken Tucky
Wednesday, October 5, 2011 at 10:39 PMNext they'll be saying they can have a new Town Hall for nothing by going down the PFI route....
britishfoxy
Wednesday, October 5, 2011 at 09:52 PMMove them all to the Broadway Theatre where they belong , allow Rinaldo Fasulo to buy the Town Hall and open it as a concert hall or the like WAKE UP BRITAIN BEFORE ITS TOO LATE
blokeonabike
Wednesday, October 5, 2011 at 09:45 PMThey have been peddling the idea of a purpose built civic suit to replace the Town Hall for years. It was to be on the South Bank a few years ago, then on a redeveloped Market site and now perhaps the Station Quarter. The rate at which PCC are disposing of staff would now make a one stop civic building a financial possibility. The possibility of the council investing in one of the proposed major developments like the Station Quarter or the South Bank may encourage a developer to get interested. The current town hall was the centre piece of the redevelopment of Narrow Bridge Street back in the 1930s during the last major economic depression. If a developer wanted a local authorities commitment to a major project moving the Town Hall to the heart of new development would be a very clear signal. Town Halls are not that easy to dispose of, often built in styles of the Greek temple they are for many sacred cows. Moving the Town Hall from its current location would be seen as an abandonment of the traditional civic centre of the City and is a metaphor for the rats deserting the sinking ship that is tired old Bridge Street. It is difficult to see in the context of the reasons given by PCC for its disposal who would want an inefficient building that is costly to run and maintain, it doesn’t have a lot going for it, it would be yet another nail in the coffin of the traditional high street
Holly GoIightly
Wednesday, October 5, 2011 at 08:40 PMThis is a common solution. Why not just built a large simple shed in Werrington with lots of parking, sorry I mean cycle spaces, and move the whole lot up there. Then demolish the town Hall and open up Bridge street onto the Cathedral. It will all look a lot nicer then. A lot of members of staff you simply do not need, so just get rid of them first. You can make the council more efficient by given them the same space as a battery chicken perhaps.
poshlegend
Wednesday, October 5, 2011 at 08:19 PMjust going back to a comment i made earlier who actually runs the Wirrina car park ? does it generate money towards the council ?
Puzzled
Wednesday, October 5, 2011 at 08:06 PMQuestion: if the town hall isn't being fully used, can they not move the staff from Manor Drive back there and make it full again?? I agree with all the comments regarding waste of money, why do the estimed leaders seem intent on spending money they haven't got? Have they learnt nothing from the mess the country has found itself in? But do we think lodging our thoughts with our area's councillers make any difference? I intend to try it anyway
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