Plans approved to use part of Melton council offices as community hub
Plans have been approved to convert part of Melton Borough Council’s offices into a community hub but a proposal to hire some of the building out as commercial offices has been dropped.
The authority has been committed to making more use of its large Parkside HQ with many staff starting to work from home during the working week since the Covid pandemic six years ago and some partner agencies moving out.
Ideas have been floated in the past to transform part of it as a GP surgery and as a 62-bed hotel but both were dropped due to being financially unviable.
The previous Labour/Independent administration’s cabinet last October backed plans to redevelop and reconfigure Parkside to enable a community hub and relocate its team of Civil Enforcement Officers (CEOs) from Phoenix House, on Nottingham Road, plus create space for ‘commercially lettable office accommodation’.
The authority is now led by the Conservative group, following a leadership election in April, and its cabinet gave the green light to the community hub scheme at its latest meeting but the commercial office element was axed.
Freeing up Phoenix House by moving services out of it will enable the council to make that building more cost effective, it says, to be retained as an asset or sold for an alternative use.
A report which went before the cabinet states: “The revised scheme has been developed specifically to ensure that delivery can be achieved within the remaining approved Asset Development Programme budget of approximately £493,000.
“Whilst the removal of the commercial office accommodation element results in the loss of a potential future rental income stream at Parkside, it significantly reduces project costs and removes the requirement for further capital investment. The revised scheme therefore represents the most affordable and realistic option currently available to the council.
“The proposed relocation of services from Phoenix House creates the opportunity for the council to review the future use of that asset and consider options to maximise its financial and strategic value.
“These opportunities may generate future commercial and redevelopment benefits and will be explored separately through a future business case and decision-making process.”
Work on the Parkside building is set to start next month and be completed by December, with service relocations from Phoenix House slated to be done by January.