Council staff given date to leave County Hall ahead of demolition

Flintshire County Council must vacate County Hall in Mold by February 28 to allow demolition of the 58-year-old brutalist structure.

The move will cost the authority £805,000 – which represents a saving as running costs on site are estimated to be around £1.2 million per year with maintenance costs over the next 25 years predicted to be around £26 million.

The plan to move the remaining council staff and operations out of the Grade II listed Raikes Lane site ahead of its demolition will be discussed tomorrow by the authority’s Constitution and Democratic Services Committee.

Ty Dewi Sant

Many staff were moved into the partially-completed Ty Dewi Sant building in Ewloe – formerly Unilever’s Unity House – when part of the building was demolished in 2020.

With construction work at Ty Dewi Sant due to be completed next month all remaining council staff, files and artefacts will need to be removed from County Hall by the end of February.

Compared to Mold headquarters, space at the new site is limited. Council meetings will continue to be hybrid due to the smaller capacity of Ty Dewi Sant’s auditorium while the day-to-day running of the council will also remain hybrid, with the limited space calling for more flexibility from officers and departments.

The county archive team also is exploring where it can keep historic artefacts and gifts to the council that it will no longer have space to put on display.

There will also be no room for the historic wooden boards recording the names of past chairpeople and other key council figures. It is proposed to have the names displayed at Ty Dewi Sant on screens as part of a rolling schedule of information and content. What happens to the existing physical boards is yet to be announced.

Grade II listed status

Originally known as Shire Hall, Flintshire County Hall was designed by renowned Coventry architect Robert Harvey in the brutalist style and inspired by the work of American architect Frank Lloyd Wright.

Completed in 1967 and opened a year later by Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon and sister of Queen Elizabeth II, Flintshire’s seat of power has long split opinion.

Praised for being an exceptional facility for the then Clwyd County Council in the 1960s, County Hall has consistently been voted one of the UK’s ugliest buildings – even as recently as two years ago.

Nevertheless, it was granted Grade II listed status in recognition of its cultural and historical interest as a distinctive example of the brutalist architecture style.