Shropshire Council reveals decisions over its ageing Shrewsbury base

The announcement will end speculation over the future of the council's base in the county town of Shrewsbury.

The move will see the council relocate from its Abbey Foregate offices to the Guildhall at Frankwell.

A paper outlining the move will go to full council for a vote next week, although the council's leader, Councillor Lezley Picton, and its cabinet member for housing and assets, Councillor Dean Carroll, both stressed the decision to hold the vote is optional, and that the authority has already agreed to leave Shirehall.

Under the proposal, workers from Shirehall will start moving to Guildhall, which has been empty since the departure of University Centre Shrewsbury, from November, with the aim to fully close Shirehall by the end of the 2025/26 financial year.

The plans retain use of the ground floor of Shirehall for a "critical data centre" until the full closure date.

Council and committee meetings will also move to Guildhall, with the first expected to take place in the building in February next year.

Guildhall will however not be open to the public, with people asked to go to the authority's customer access points, Shropshire Local sites, or use phone or the internet to contact its staff.

The move into Guildhall will come ahead of the council's ambitions to take over a central building as an 'anchor tenant' in the much-vaunted redevelopment of the Riverside area of the town.

Councillor Carroll confirmed that the authority will be looking to sell Shirehall, and has already held discussions with potential purchasers.

He said the authority would be putting no caveats over the future redevelopment, with any restrictions likely to limit the potential multi-million pound capital receipt from the site.

The former crown court building, and the current coroners and registrar offices will also go as part of the move, with the latter needing to relocate elsewhere.

Lord Hill's Column will be unaffected by the decision, and the monument and its land will not be included in any future sale.

Councillor Carroll said the decision was simple – with the current premises costing the council £1.3m a year, and requiring multi-million pounds worth of work to bring it up to modern day standards – in terms of the expectations of a modern office environment, practical factors such as heating, along with the building's carbon footprint.

Those costs were estimated to be £24m in 2018, and are expected to have risen significantly in the years since.

The building has also been impacted by the change in building regulations with the council unable to use the third, fourth, or fifth floors because of potential fire risks.

Councillor Carroll said the move to Shrewsbury's town centre would also boost the local economy and place the council in the heart of the county town.

He said: "I think we are well past – years if not decades – of Shirehall being a good thing in terms of council offices."

He added: "The building is in some ways impossible to modernise due to the fabric of the building."

Shirehall opened in 1966 and was a base for up to 1,000 workers at its height.

Councillor Carroll said: "It was built for a very different kind of organisation, where everyone was coming into a central office and did their work in a defined office."

He added: "We cannot look Shropshire residents in the eyes and say we are reducing services they need but we are not reducing costs on a building we do not need."

Councillor Carroll said it was not just a "practical" decision, but a "moral duty" to move away from the building.

He added that it was vital the council takes a central role in the future of the Riverside, for the success of the development.

He said: "If you are pursuing an ambitious commercially-led development in part of Shrewsbury's town centre then you need an anchor tenant – you have it in a number of developments that offer new types of commercial space to the market – in order for the market to have confidence, it needs to have an anchor tenant."

Councillor Carroll also reiterated the potential benefits of a town centre move.

He said: "There are economic benefits of putting Shropshire Council's own workforce in the town centre. If you consider 250 extra people working in Shrewsbury town centre every day, the economic impact that has on town-centre traders and the footfall that brings in is a huge benefit to the economic viability of the town centre."

Councillor Carroll said that Guildhall could potentially be converted for apartments as and when a new Riverside base is completed.