Archived press release

Date Published: 19/01/07

Plans to relocate AVDC’s Exchange Street and Friars Square offices onto one site in Aylesbury have taken a step closer to reality. At a meeting of the district council’s cabinet this week, members gave the go-ahead for staff from the ...

Plans to relocate AVDC’s Exchange Street and Friars Square offices onto one site in Aylesbury have taken a step closer to reality.

At a meeting of the district council’s cabinet this week, members gave the go-ahead for staff from the Exchange Street offices to move to new premises at the council-owned Acco site in Gatehouse Way.

The move will allow the council to demolish its Exchange Street offices and use the site for temporary car parking before the £25 million theatre development gets underway. Work is due to start on site for the theatre in April.

The cabinet also authorised officers to develop a detailed design for the construction of a new office block and the refurbishment of an existing building at Gatehouse Way to provide enough space to accommodate all the staff from Friars Square.

The office relocation will be on a phased basis. Staff and members moving from Exchange Street will move to a refurbished office building at the Gatehouse Way site in summer 2007. The move from Friars Square is likely to take place in summer 2008.

The High Street offices, which include the customer service centre, will not move at this stage although a potential third phase is also proposed, which would involve moving staff from these offices to a new block at Gatehouse Way in due course. The financial viability of this project will be reviewed next year when the move from Friars Square has been completed.

If the third phase is given the go-ahead, the council’s customer service centre will remain in the town centre at an alternative location.

Bringing staff from Exchange Street and Friars Square together onto one site will not only save on staff travelling time but will also cut costs as well. Efficiency will be improved because staff will work in modern, open plan, flexible accommodation which will benefit from modern ICT (Information and Communications Technology).

No extra money for the project is needed from council tax as funding has been set aside in the council’s capital programme.

Once completed, and staff from Exchange Street and Friars Square have moved in, the council will make significant savings year on year. The majority of this will come from savings on the Friars Square building, which is currently leased by the council.

Councillor John Cartwright, Leader of the Council, said: “The council has been keen for many years for all staff to be located in one office but the need to vacate Exchange Street to enable the town centre to be redeveloped, coupled with an opportunity to end the lease for Friars Square in 2008, has made relocation all the more important. Moving to new offices will mean significant savings for our residents, whilst ensuring that our customer service centre continues to be located in the town centre.”

He added: “Phases two and three have yet to be agreed by the council and those decisions will be made at a later date.”