21 October 2011
Eastbourne Town Hall is set to become a hub for community organisations under plans to relocate council staff.
At a council cabinet meeting this week, members approved the second phase of a pioneering council scheme to relocate staff and increase productivity.
The Agile Working Programme has already seen staff moved from the council’s former offices at 68 Grove Road to refurbished and highly efficient offices at 1 Grove Road.
In total, 33 staff will relocate from the town tall to 1 Grove Road allowing the council to increase its income from hiring out space at the historic building. East Sussex County Council's Registrars service is unaffected by the changes and will continue to be located at the town hall.
The move will pave the way for community groups to use the town hall for regular activities.
Leader of the council, Cllr David Tutt said: “By moving staff from the town hall to 1 Grove Road we will be able to explore better uses of the Town Hall, both to support the community and to raise much needed income in challenging economic times.
“Our aim is to give local community groups far easier access to the town hall, and to turn it into a thriving community hub.
“Clearly, it is important that the town hall continues to generate funds for the council and this will be balanced with the needs of the community.”
The Agile Working scheme is designed to deliver major cost savings by embracing new IT technologies in the workplace. Modern working practices including hot desking and paperless work processes have been incorporated in bright and engaging workplace areas.
Under Phase 2, staff at the council’s theatres, the Towner art gallery and the Tourist Information Centre will not be relocated however other Agile processes including paperless working and a new telephone system will be introduced to deliver cost savings.
Work will also be carried out under Phase 2 to examine how elected councillors can benefit from Agile Working such as having mobile access to emails and training on other electronic devices.
Phase 1 of the council’s Agile Working Programme was completed in March and has begun delivering immediate cost savings of £340,000 a year. Scanning documents in order to cut back on the use of paper will alone deliver savings of £20,000 a year while overall an efficiency improvement target of 10% has been set as staff are less tied to desk-based paperwork. It is proposed that Phase 2 will be delivered by October 2012
In September, Eastbourne Borough Council became the only local authority in the country to be shortlisted for the prestigious Public Sector Project of the Year at the 2011 UK IT Industry Awards for Agile working.
