‘Deckchairs on the Titanic’: Councillor hits out at £1.7m Information Station move

A city council is facing value-for-money questions after nearly £2m was spent on the relocation of its Information Station for public services, leaving both the old and new sites underused.

Cllr Matthew Evans, who leads Newport City Council’s Conservative opposition group, alleged the £1.724 million had been “squandered” on the relocation from the city’s former railway building to the Central Library.

“It’s like rearranging deckchairs on the Titanic,” he said. “The outcome is an underutilised prominent building on Queensway and an underutilised Information Station only open three days a week.”

Convenient location 

Newport City Council rejected the claim money was “squandered” and said the investment had helped “consolidate services in an accessible and convenient location” at the library building.

But a reinvention of the Queensway site as a co-working space has proved short-lived, with its initial tenants, Tramshed Tech, leaving after a year and a half.

Cllr Evans said he was “very sorry to hear that Tramshed Tech pulled out”, adding he wanted to see more “innovative businesses in the city centre”.

Tramshed Tech, which was contacted for comment, has since “merged” its city operations with its other site in Griffin Place – a move it said on its website would “provide an even better experience for our Newport community”.

Commenting on the Information Station, Cllr Evans said he was “mystified why the council pulled out of there in the first place”.

Newport City Council signed a 16-year lease for the Queensway premises in 2012, but a spokesperson said the authority’s wider ambitions for a multi-agency Information Station were “never fully realised”.

“Since then, there have been significant changes in how the council operates due to a combination of advances in technology, significant financial challenges faced by the public sector, and the pandemic,” they explained.

It was decided it “would make a better use of council assets and resources” to move services to the Central Library in John Frost Square – at the city’s “heart” unlike the “somewhat isolated” Queensway site, the spokesperson added.

Cabinet members then “agreed to seek an alternative commercial use” for the ground and first floors of the Queensway premises in 2022.

Commercial use

Following a £1.3 million Welsh Government grant supported the Central Library renovations – and a question from Tory councillor David Fouweather – the council said it had agreed to contribute £450,000 towards refitting the Queensway site for commercial use.

The council confirmed the overall works ended up costing £1.724 million.

Despite the local authority’s aspirations to sub-let the old Information Station on a commercial basis, the site is currently used for a range of council services.

These include employment skills training and a “drop-in zone” for young people with support on education, work, housing, finance and budgeting.

The council spokesperson also said it was “unlikely that further costs would need to be incurred if another operator was found” for the Queensway site.

The authority “will continue to look for other potential tenants to try and maximise the financial return on the council’s investment in the building”.

Meanwhile, the council stands by its decision to renovate the Central Library and move services there, arguing it has led to a “busy and well-used” building which is “in stark contrast to how it was before the refurbishment and relocation”.