Council offices in Thornliebank are set to be vacated amid plans to give up the lease and instead improve the local authority’s Eastwood headquarters.
East Renfrewshire Council has reviewed its offices, with the rise of hybrid working as a result of the covid pandemic meaning some space is “surplus to requirements”.
Two options were presented to cabinet members: retaining offices at Spiersbridge Way, Thornliebank, and closing the Eastwood headquarters, on Rouken Glen Road; or keeping the headquarters and not extending the lease at Spiersbridge.
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Council officials recommended councillors approve the principle of not renewing the lease at Spiersbridge, which expires in February 2026, and the suggestion was backed at a meeting on Monday.
Potential savings from the move have been estimated at between £195,000 and £321,000 per year, depending on the improvements to the Eastwood headquarters.
Estimated savings per year for staying at Spiersbridge and closing the Eastwood building were under £200,000.
A number of options on how to use the Eastwood headquarters moving forward will now be “explored in more detail” over the next three to six months. These include minor or substantial “adaptive works” which could also include refurbishment of the council chambers or no work at all.
A heat network, powering the council offices, Eastwood Leisure Centre and St Ninian’s High School, is also being explored.
Costs have been calculated over a 20-year period and range from £8.9m to £14.1m. Officials reported retaining Speirsbridge would have cost more than £16m over that period.
The council’s chief executive Lorraine McMillan said these figures are “for the cost of running the buildings over 20 years, but the actual reason for doing this is to get savings compared to the status quo.”
She said there were “bigger savings” from “closing Spiersbridge and coming into this [Eastwood] building because of energy savings and the rental”.
A council official said: “Covid, along with the utilisation of modern technology, has seen an acceleration of changes to traditional working practices and environments.
“As a consequence, there is now office space surplus to requirements.”
They said the Eastwood building is “more than office accommodation, it’s also a front-facing public access building for the registration of births, marriages and deaths”.
It has been reported the capacity of Spiersbridge could be around 230 while the headquarters could accommodate around 350 staff.
A council report added the current Eastwood building is “not suitable” for modern hybrid working and investment would be needed to “create an open plan modern environment”.
Exploring a range of options for retaining the headquarters and then taking a preferred option to Royal Institute of British Architects Stage 4 design is estimated to cost around £90,000.
At the cabinet meeting, an official said closing the Eastwood building was not favoured as it could “potentially accommodate more people and is better located geographically”.
Cllr Katie Pragnell said it had initially been reported that the headquarters “would be harder to retrofit” and asked whether that had changed.
Officials previously “thought that the construction type of headquarters was such that it would make renovations financially prohibitive”.
The council official said: “We have had a number of visual surveys of the building undertaken. We think the energy utilisation in this building can be more efficient than it’s currently configured.
“We are also looking at the possibility of heat networks for the whole campus, which could potentially power the leisure centre, the school [St Ninian’s] and this building as well.”
He also said car parking pressure on the Eastwood site has “often been significant” so a “masterplanning exercise” will be carried out to “ensure car parking and transport provision is sufficient”. It is expected to cost around £40,000.
Council leader Owen O’Donnell said he welcomed a masterplan for the wider Eastwood site. He said a local heat network “makes perfect sense”, particularly “when we’ve got St Ninian’s there which has got a lot of potential solar benefits for the rest of us”.
Ahead of the review, officials reported offices are “expensive to maintain” with the cost of heating and lighting in the three main offices in 2021/22 reaching £213,000.
They said costs were expected to increase to £457,000 by 2023/24 due to rising fuel prices, and general running costs for the buildings were just over £1m last year.
Offices at Barrhead Main Street will be retained as officials reported the buildings have a “regeneration role” in the town, increasing footfall.
