County Hall costing local taxpayers around £200,000 a year to run

Twm Owen, Local democracy reporter.

A council’s headquarters is costing local taxpayers around £200,000 a year to run, it has been revealed.  

However, the councillor responsible for finances has said identifying which departments, known as directorates, most use County Hall is difficult due to its operation as a shared working space for staff from across the authority.  

Labour cabinet member Ben Callard said there has also been an increase in staff using Monmouthshire County Council’s base at the Rhadyr in Usk when questioned at the council’s March meeting by Conservative Councillor Rachel Buckler.  

The Devauden member said her local community council had been concerned about the cost of running the building, opened in 2013 at a cost of £8 million, with the advent of working from home and said, “residents expect we demonstrate value for money”.  

She asked Cllr Callard to provide the total annual running costs for County Hall, current “directorate-level utilisation and occupancy levels”, and which departments “have the lowest occupancy of County Hall”.  

Cllr Callard said annual operating costs are around £200,000, with some £85,000 to £86,000 spent on electricity, gas and water bills, and £124,000 on business rates, which, though collected by staff within the building, are banked by the Welsh Government.  

The Llanfoist and Govilon councillor said: “It’s difficult to identify utilisation by directorate as we operate shared working space across directorates.  

“We’ve seen a significant increase in average occupancy levels over the last six months which is a success of drop in and shared working.”  

The cabinet member also said the Shared Resource Services, which provides IT support to Monmouthshire and some other Gwent unitary authorities and the police, as well as Gwent’s Education Achievement Service, have leased buildings at County Hall. He said the council received around £100,000 in income from letting out the site.  

He added the council has some 4,500 staff and said not all are expected to work from its base: “We don’t ask teachers to come in, we want them in the classroom, or social workers.”  

He also said the building is a “civic base” for the county, which holds events including weddings and citizenship ceremonies, and councillors can also work from County Hall.  

Cllr Buckler said she thought Cllr Callard was being “slightly dismissive of concerns residents may have” and it would be “useful for residents to know much more about current occupancy rates” to consider if the space is used effectively.  

She added: “It’s a bit of a cheap shot to say you don’t expect teachers to come in.”  

Cllr Callard said he would be “more than happy to try and get the data” but said he wouldn’t want any department to be perceived as “not pulling its weight as they are not in County Hall when we wouldn’t expect them to be.”