Claims that Fife Council’s Dunfermline headquarters is being run down have been strenuously denied.
An insider told The Courier a large number of employees had already been transferred to other offices, while two services had moved out completely.
But the council pledged the building would remain as “one of the key offices for the council moving into in the future.”
When opened in 2004 in what was formerly part of the old Dunfermline and West Fife hospital at the bottom of New Row, New City House was hailed as the council’s flagship office complex in the town.
Funded by selling off old council property, it brought together staff from 11 different sites and was part of the council’s attempts to introduce a more efficient and cost effective service.
An employee said staff were concerned Fife Council was running down the building.
He revealed: “There has been a steady stream of staff leaving to go to other offices and two services have moved out completely facilities and development services while housing have staff based at building services in Dunfermline, which is ludicrous as their team manager is at New City House.
“The council has a long-term contract for this building which will need to be honoured and it seems strange to use alternative office space when they are paying for New City House regardless.”
He added that the removal of staff to another office base caused a financial burden to the council additional travel expenses for up to three years.
He said: “I presume managers will have some excuse, but a building which had around 400 staff probably has half that now. This building is/was Fife Council’s flagship model building when it was built it seems managers think differently now.”
A second insider said the issue was rooted in lack of information from council officials.
Continued…
“The story here isn’t the changes, it is the time taken by officers to implement it. It is a real indication of the lack of information to the workforce and the public. The council’s process is far too slow,” he claimed.
Alan Paul, the council’s property services senior manager, said: “As part of the office rationalisation programme approved by Fife Council last year, which identified that more than 60 buildings would be closed within five years, it was acknowledged that New City House would remain as one of the key offices for the council moving into the future.
“Whilst there have been two service relocations from New City House in recent months, there remains 323 staff from the 365 originally based in the building.
“The building layout provides a total of 360 workstations. There are further moves due later this year as part of the programme, both from and to New City House, which will result in over 450 staff working from the building within the next year to 18 months.
“Similar relocations are taking place across council offices in all of the major towns across Fife, and unless spare capacity is created in the buildings which are to be retained, then additional staff cannot be relocated there in the future.
“As part of the programme arrangements, the council is endeavouring to ensure that there is a minimal migration of staff outwith the towns where they are presently based, but this is not going to be possible in every case.
“Linked to this is the identification of where staff need to be based in order to best respond to where services are required. In instances where service demand has changed that may be in a different town from where staff operate now.”
Turning to the issue of lack of haste and little information, Mr Paul added: “This is a major undertaking for the council and will take some time to implement fully. All staff involved are being kept up to date with progress and should discuss any concerns they may have with their manager in the first instance.”