Councillors in Wokingham are to discuss a £27 million proposal to demolish the town’s former M&S store for a new head office building for the borough council.
The authority’s overview and scrutiny management committee’s January 14 meeting will consider a report which recommends the council either goes ahead with a full refurbishment its current Shute End offices or redevelops the M&S site in Peach Street, currently a Forces Support charity shop, for a new three-storey home.
A total of 1,309 members of council staff (out of a total workforce of 1,439) are based out of Shute End. The building, most of which dates from around 1990, originally had desks for 800 staff but the top two floors were closed in 2022, reducing desk capacity to 405.
However, an analysis of working patterns has shown that average occupation is now 193. The report proposes desk space for 225 staff.
The report initially considered five options which also included:
- A move to council owned buildings at Mulberry Business Park
- The sale of Shute End and a move to rent existing office space in the borough
- Minimal refurbishment of Shute End
The cost of fully refurbishing Shute End is £25.2m while the cost of a move to the fully-redeveloped, council-owned M&S site is £26.8m. An earlier plan for a £5m refurbishment of the M&S building was dismissed due to it having reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC).
If a relocation is to go ahead, which will take up to five years, the Shute End site would become available for development. It is currently allocated in the Local Plan for around 100 homes.
If the committee seeks to move forward with considering the two options, it will go to the executive committee later in the year.
Image: Google.
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