Refurbished Council Offices

MELTON Borough Council staff have returned to offices in Melton Mowbray from their temporary accommodation in Nottingham following the fire at the Council Offices in May. Many of our staff are now located in the fully refurbished and redesigned ‘Nottingham Road Offices’. The move has been a success and feedback on the new facilities has been extremely positive. The Nottingham Road offices have been transformed into an office that can facilitate an increased number of staff in a modern office space.

Staff are using the new office space on a flexible, hot desk basis, using different desks daily so as not to create ownership of desks.

A key building in this process is the remaining third of the damaged Council Offices, which survived the worst of the fire and has now been fully refurbished and redesigned to facilitate an increased number of staff and modern office space.

The Council have severely reduced office capacity and to compensate are introducing a new modern telephone system and this updated website to assist with the enquiries that it recognises it is currently struggling to cope with.  Most enquiries are now dealt with via the call centre – but also an appointments system for those who want personal, face to face assistance will be available at the Children’s Centre on Sysonby Street and it is planned face to face facilities will also be available at the new Children’s Centre on Dalby Road in the near future. There are limited home visits available for customers where appropriate.

Commenting on the latest developments Council Leader Malise Graham said: “The fire and its aftermath has obviously been a traumatic time for council staff, councillors, our partners and the local community. I am extremely grateful to everyone associated with the Council, but particularly to local residents, for their patience and understanding during these difficult times.

Our recovery process is moving forward at a pace and I am pleased that many positive moves are underway to get council services fully operational from the town again. However, I would like to stress that despite these moves, we still have a long way to go before we can say “we are back to normal”.

Councillor Malise Graham also stressed that although the means of access to the Council’s front line staff will be different, the professional service they provide will continue.