New £10.5m Wyre Forest District Council HQ to open its doors

3:00pm Friday 28th September 2012 in Local Photograph of the Author By William Tomaney

WYRE Forest District Council’s controversial new £10.5 million headquarters will open its doors on Monday.

More than 200 council workers will be based at the building in Finepoint Way on the Stourport and Kidderminster border.

The project has been dogged by controversy since work on the building started in June 2011.

Earlier this year the original completion date was pushed back six weeks to July 30 and the move in date was moved back a month to October after IT links were not installed on time.

Council leader, Conservative councillor John Campion , said, however, the move would save the authority £500,000 a year in running costs in areas such as energy efficiency and not having to rent several buildings for council workers.

“Moving into Wyre Forest House is the single most important step in our transformation programme,” he said. “Saving money for the taxpayer and allowing money to be diverted to the front line.

“It shows how we are committed to modernising the council by providing flexible accommodation for our office-based staff and a fit for purpose venue for the formal meetings of councillors.

“I am very pleased and believe it will become an iconic public building that will serve the needs of the district for decades to come.”

Mr Campion said one feature of the new building would be the ability to webcast council meetings live from the chamber on the council’s website.

The moving of staff from offices at Duke House, Coventry Street and Green Street, Kidderminster and the Stourport Civic Centre is due to be completed by Monday, October 8.

Refuse and recycling, environmental maintenance and parks and rangers teams and the vehicle depot will continue to operate from Green Street.

“We will be organising an open day for the public later in the year when visitors can tour the facilities and learn more about the range of services we provide,” added Mr Campion.

The changes do not affect how the public contact the council online at wyreforestdc.gov.uk, by phone on 01562 732928 or in person at Riverside House, High Street, Stourport, Kidderminster Town Hall or Load Street, Bewdley.

Comments(25)

OnewordTF says...
3:35pm Fri 28 Sep 12

I'm really pleased the council have built a new palace on green belt (look to the right of the building and there's a whole site available on brown belt). Oh well. And saving £500,000 a year. That's 25 years at £10.5m. Before breaking even And it has a wood facia. That rots. Oh, and what's with the pointy roof stuff? If the roofs were less pointy they could have had less buildings. It's a geometry thing. After losing all that money in Icelandic banks and the government cutting down on council budgets this, obviously, was the way to go. I love our council's care of the Stourport riverside and other areas of forward thinking. But this is just plain stupid.

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Stephen Brown says...
4:13pm Fri 28 Sep 12

Moving all the staff into one building leaving all the others mostly empty and adding to the image and actuality of decline of the town centres. And as for the new building being green and saving money, don't make me laugh.

Yes well done WFDC, a perfect way to spend taxpayers money.

QUOTE "It's the single most important step in the council's transformation programme".

So then, when do we get more accountability, democracy and better use of public money ? That's the only transformation I want to see!

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SOS lad says...
7:01pm Fri 28 Sep 12

Lets hope that it is better maintained than the council depot in Green St, there are trees and shrubs growing out of the brickwork.

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neilhar says...
8:20pm Fri 28 Sep 12

Another fine building they have to neglect.

Is everyone aware that not all of the council staff even fit into it.

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Gobby Robby says...
8:31pm Fri 28 Sep 12

I think we all know which one that is ;-)

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neilhar says...
9:09pm Fri 28 Sep 12

Well, now that is all done and dusted, they can also get on with the business of building new leisure centre. Spennells valley road is the rumour...

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John Herbert Smith says...
12:39am Sat 29 Sep 12

The land surround Bewdley, Kidderminster and Stourport is designated part of the West Midlands (B'ham) Green Belt. How did they get permission to build this?

And as for the new leisure centre, where will this go? Not in the woodland on Spennells Valley Road I hope!

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drbeat says...
7:40am Sat 29 Sep 12

This is all really easy to fix, don't vote lib, lab or con! Get them out, start voting for independent people who care about the community (and I don't mean those health concern people, they are a waste of space too).

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Gobby Robby says...
10:39am Sat 29 Sep 12

And then people will just start hating the 'independent' people.
As for the green belt, isn't the government making it easier to build on it now?

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stour67 says...
8:08pm Sat 29 Sep 12

It had already got planing for brinton carpets new offices and dye house in the late 90s,the old national standard site might be to toxic to be built on yet there seems to be tests done sometime ago but nothing since as it's would be the new owner that has to clean site which would cost.

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emjaypee says...
8:43pm Sat 29 Sep 12

@Johnherbert, the spennells site would be the old victoria cricket ground nr junction with Chester Rd South. Planning already exists for an indoor bowling & pub/hotel. This particular scheme has been stopped owing to the Bowling club pulling out, so no Woodland development required.
S. Brown you say the other buildings are left empty, but those were not owned by the council they are rented/leased from third party. What would be the future cost in rent to the taxpayer over next 30 plus years versus cost of the new building?
You hear of business' moving out of rented & into their own property all the time.

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curryman says...
9:11pm Sat 29 Sep 12

I just hope they have a naming competition for the site, i will suggest it be called " The pigsty " for obvious reasons

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walkerno5 says...
9:41pm Sat 29 Sep 12

I suggest "The cockpit".

Or

"The twatbox".

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John Herbert Smith says...
12:55pm Sun 30 Sep 12

Good. Although why don't we leave the green fields undeveloped for use of local children instead of concreting over it? Esp when we could develop a centre on a brownfield site!

Sorry if I sound like a green campaigner (I'm not), but I value our green space.

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Bewdley Boy says...
8:30pm Sun 30 Sep 12

The new HQ looks like six sheds, so let's call it what we see!

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FlipC - The Mad Ranter says...
9:35am Mon 1 Oct 12

Don't worry about it not being maintained, remember the uninspiring look of the building was specifically tailored to make it easier to sell on to a business in the future. So they're not going to let it go into rack and ruin.

As for savings. The projections were for 25 years and even then only produced a £2m saving over the choice of extended the existing sites

It's all in the DTZ report if you know how to read it -
http://flipc.blogspo
t.co.uk/2011/03/dtz-
single-site-report.h
tml

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Stephen Brown says...
12:00pm Tue 2 Oct 12

@ emjaypee:
which buildings are you referring to please?
So far as I know, and I stand to be corrected, the council own the other buildings that housed their staff and already have vacant ones for sale or are looking to offload to community groups? eg Stourport Civic

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stour67 says...
12:57pm Tue 2 Oct 12

What depts are going to be in this building or will i still have to go into town.

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neilhar says...
5:29pm Tue 2 Oct 12

Tenko finally re opens

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ctamsin says...
8:25pm Tue 2 Oct 12

@stour67

I know you can't pay council tax there because I tried myself yesterday - that was after I tried the new office in Stourport and couldn't pay there because the machine had broken! Bewdley had just shut so I ended up in Kidderminster today. Bl***y ridiculous

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FranOb says...
9:33pm Tue 2 Oct 12

The Council had been leasing Duke House and won't be now. Most public access will still be via The Hubs but all meetings will be at the new HQ and staff, except those a Hubs will be based there!

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Mr.Fie says...
10:59pm Tue 2 Oct 12

drbeat wrote:
This is all really easy to fix, don't vote lib, lab or con! Get them out, start voting for independent people who care about the community (and I don't mean those health concern people, they are a waste of space too).
All 3 are a waste of time, lets get behind an independent who represents the community

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Jane Gordon says...
11:57pm Tue 2 Oct 12

Whenever I have had a problem and I have approached a Torry or Labour councillor I've got nowhere. It has only been the health concern people who have actually come up with any practical solution. each to their own

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Red Flag Dan says...
1:05pm Wed 3 Oct 12

Bewdley Town Council, Stourport Town Council, Kidderminster Chartered Trustees (should be Kidderminster Town Council), Kidderminster Foreign Parish Council, Rock Parish Council, Rushock Parish Council, Stone Parish Council, Upper Arley Parish Council, Wolverley and Cookley Parish Council, Wyre Forest District Council, Worcestershire County Council.

Serious question: why don't we just scrap Districts Councils and divide what little responsibilities they have between Town/ Parish councils and a Worcestershire based unitary authority?

What does Wyre Forest District Council actually do these days?

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emjaypee says...
9:03pm Thu 4 Oct 12

Strange how some people criticise the workings of a public body whilst holding ambitions to be elected to that body in future elections. Either you support it or you do not.
Yes, scrap DC's & parish/town councils and have one unitary body. That way you reduce the bill to the taxpayer by not duplicating services and not having so many Cllrs.
I daresay that all those Cllrs that rightly oppose the new HQ are privately relishing their brand new debating chamber and all the frills that come with it.

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