October 27: Why squander cash on new council offices in Harrogate?

HARROGATE Borough Council (HBC) seem to be swimming against the financial tide. In these times of austerity, they are close to embarking on a £15m pound project to build new offices for their staff. Admittedly, the cost is to be spread over the next 25 years but the benefits of this expenditure are far from obvious. What must their Westminster-based colleagues make of it?

I have tried to find out through a series of emails since July to the Department for Communities and Local Government, Greg Clark (Sec of State) and David Cameron. Their reluctance to provide any form of response is puzzling to say the least. I was a civil servant for 20 years and I am astonished by this apparent lack of courtesy. To give them credit, Harrogate Borough Council (HBC) have managed to keep council taxpayers’ bills at a steady rate year after year.

However the hard times continue, as George Osborne knows only too well, and councils will soon be faced with further challenges as arrangements between national and local government undergo important changes. HBC will soon have an annual £5m black hole to fill and will attempt to do this with further efficiency savings and the establishment of a trading arm to compete with various services in the private sector. I hope this doesn’t prove too difficult a task!

It’s good to see that HBC have recently managed to relocate all their staff to just two of their existing sites. This means that three of the original five sites can be disposed of, hopefully for a significant amount of money. Effectively, they will have achieved their sensible and long-held aspiration to consolidate operations, thereby gaining efficiency savings for the future as well as putting some money into the coffers.

Looking ahead, the number of staff working in the two sites now occupied will only reduce, firstly due to the continuing need to make savings but also due to HBC’s policies of home-working and hot-desking. There can only be one conclusion. With these efficiency savings in the bag, there is now no reason to spend £15m building a new office block which is projected to have a life-span of only 60 years. It occurs to me that the depreciation on that building works out at £250,000 per annum; I wonder how that compares with the existing Crescent Gardens offices?

Councillors need to think again. If this project goes ahead, they won’t be remembered for their hitherto prudent approach to local finance but for squandering council taxpayers’ money on an un-needed office block.