A TRANSFORMATION in the way council services are provided in Northumberland is set to be launched by a £1.5m project in Cramlington.
County Hall bosses say the council currently has too many buildings – most of which are in poor condition and don’t meet the required standards for delivering services to the public.
A new report says some facilities might have to be closed unless the authority spends money on them or sets out on a new strategy for using them.
It is planned to embark on a major rationalisation programme aimed at bringing more public services under one roof and reducing the number of buildings people have to visit.
A pilot scheme is proposed in Cramlington which involves creating a customer contact centre and public library in the council’s Your Link building next to the Manor Walks shopping arcade and Concordia leisure centre. The three-storey building would include a customer contact centre at the top, a facility providing information about council and partner organisation services on the first floor and a relocated library on the ground floor.
The multi-purpose facility, planned to be fully operational by March, is seen as the model for transformed “front office” services for people across Northumberland. People would be able to use it to borrow books, use computers, pay bills, access learning and skills opportunities, get information about health, register births, deaths and marriages and make complaints about council services.
A report to next week’s county council executive, by head of customer and cultural services Stacey Burlet, says: “This will ultimately result in the delivery of services, on behalf of and with partner services.
And it adds: “Multiple enquiries which previously required separate visits to a number of locations would now be resolved with one visit to a single location.”
Ms Burlet says a recent study of the council’s estate showed that it has too many inadequate buildings – a situation that locks up significant resources and costs money.
Next week the executive will be asked to approve a programme of activity to ensure that the plan offers value for money, is sustainable and delivers benefits for the public and council staff.
