Shirehall: A unique building and classic example of 1960s creation

While more seem to fall into the former camp there is one certainty, the days are numbered for Shropshire Council's Shrewsbury home, Shirehall.

Recent weeks have seen the authority confirm it is looking to leave the giant offices, and as expected the council has now said the building will never fully re-open after the pandemic.

The building was designed by the county architect Ralph Crowe, and was built in the mid 1960s before being officially opened by The Queen on March 17, 1967.

At the time the authority had decided it would be best served by moving all of its functions under one roof.

The building is certainly unique, with an oval council chamber on concrete stilts separate from the main body of offices. The underside of the chamber is also gently curved – not just flat.

Metaphorically, the designers said they wanted to give the impression that people were supporting of the work of the elected representatives.

The outside of the council chamber is finished with Portland stone while the reinforced concrete construction of all the administrative floors and the chamber underside is faced with green and grey Italian terrazzo ceramic mosaic.

While it was cutting-edge for the 1960s time has caught up with the building, with energy consumption and insulation falling far short of modern expectations – especially when public funds are being used to finance running costs.

Former council leader Keith Barrow had first aired the idea of selling off the building and creating a more streamlined council.

The plan was ditched after Mr Barrow's resignation, with his 2016-successor Councillor Malcolm Pate reaffirming the commitment to stay at Shirehall – putting solar panels on the roof in an effort to make the building more viable and exploring bringing more workers back into the offices.

He said: "We are now going to stay at Shirehall. We have done a re-appraisal of the costs of running it and it is less than envisaged previously.

"It is the cheapest accommodation by far that we can get anywhere in the Shrewsbury area. We could not get equivalent accommodation for the same price Shirehall costs us so we have made the decision to stay here on a permanent basis."

In 2017 the authority then set out plans to spend more than £18m refurbishing the site.

At the time around 550 people were working in the building although there are around 1,024 potential work stations.

It was also estimated that the building's 34 meeting rooms were only in use a third of the time.

The arrival of the pandemic appears to have put the block on Shirehall's reprieve, with the council's current leader Peter Nutting confirming this week: "Shirehall will never re-open in the way that it did before March. Indeed, we’ve already announced that the council plans to leave Shirehall permanently by 2023 and move to a new, smaller, home in Shrewsbury town centre."

Were the building demolished it would leave a sizeable portion of land available for development – and a potential windfall for the cash-strapped council as it looks to set up new premises in the town.

The council appears well prepared for the transition after it revealed that 2,600 workers and councillors were able to work from home within five days when lockdown kicked in due to its previous investment in "digital transformation".

Prior to the crisis the usual daily ‘working remotely’ figure was in the region of 500 to 600 people.

Speaking ahead of the decision to leave the building Councillor Steve Charmley, deputy leader and portfolio holder for assets, describe the impact of the pandemic as being a catalyst for the move.

He said: "The climate emergency has exposed the inefficiencies of the building which were well documented at the time, and it’s come to light that it’s simply not viable to turn the building into the environmentally positive building which we all want in the current day.

"The running costs of the building are about £1.2 million a year so just in financial terms the viability is challenged.

"The current Covid-19 pandemic and the floods have focussed minds and changed the behaviours of ourselves and staff as a council on how we can operate in the future."