The first phase of a £4.9 million scheme to revamp Kendal’s council buildings is complete and the new-look town hall will open its doors for the first time tomorrow.
The building has had a makeover so it is more accessible for people and community groups.
South Lakeland District Council has also moved its reception to to the front of the building, which the authority hopes will put it at the heart of the high street.
The work is the first phase of a project to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the council’s main accommodation in Kendal as part of the authority’s Customer Connect transformation programme.
The second stage involves work to remodel the offices in South Lakeland House, so that around half the office space will be available to let to other organisations and creating a Mintworks 2 new enterprise centre for start-up businesses, to build on the success of the existing council-run Mintworks hub on Highgate, which has supported hundreds of small businesses and clients in the five years since it opened.
All existing users of the meeting rooms will be welcomed back from 21 June, in line with the Government’s roadmap for easing COVID-19 restrictions.
New council leader Jonathan Brook, said: “The opening up of the new-look town hall is a real milestone.
“Moving the main reception areas for the public to the front of the town hall will make visiting the council much more accessible and user-friendly, especially improving disabled access, and puts the council at the heart of the high street, rather than tucked away and accessed down a narrow yard.
“The additional meeting spaces that have been created mean the town hall can be better used by community groups and for events, safeguarding its role as an important community building.
“With the work to the town hall and South Lakeland House we wanted to ensure that anything we did would be cost-effective for the taxpayer, make the very best use of the buildings, safeguard the future of the town hall as a civic and community facility and make life easier for our customers.
“Doing nothing and staying in South Lakeland House but not remodelling would have left us with a building too big for our needs but not suitable for letting to anyone else, less effective and less accessible for our customers and which didn’t make full use of the town hall.
“Both buildings would have still required significant amounts of capital investment in ongoing maintenance and repairs in future years, but without the potential for creating any additional income, so would have worked out more expensive in the long-term.’’
The council’s overall Customer Connect innovation programme is also on track to deliver savings in excess of £8 million over 10 years by restructuring the entire organisation.
Under the new way of working customers will have better access to services, 24 hours a day, seven days a week and have more opportunity to self-serve through improved digital options, including the new My Account function, which officially launched in March this year and already has 6,500 sign-ups.
