Powys County Council has brought forward its plans to relocate staff from Robert Owen House in Newtown due to a boiler failure.
As reported by MyNewtown last week, the office was closed and staff moved after the boiler broke down.
The council was planning to move Adult Social Care staff from the building into the Park Offices in the town later this summer. But with the boiler breakdown and no hot water facility, this has now taken place and the building is closed.
Corporate Director (Children and Adults) Alison Bulman said: “The office space in the Park Offices was, thankfully, ready for the staff to move into straight away so we were in a relatively fortunate position of being able to bring the move forward.”
She added: “I should stress that provision for our service users has been uninterrupted and I’d like to thank our staff for the pragmatic way that they are dealing with this – everyone has pulled together to ensure that the service goes on.”
The council has had a long-standing plan to vacate Robert Owen House as part of its property rationalisation project, which will help the council meet its savings targets.
The building has, for some time, had water entering the property and the council will now consider how it will dispose of the property.
Council staff who were based in Robert Owen House included Reablement and Domiciliary Care staff and those working with supported tenancies and people with learning disabilities.
Ms Bulman added: “If anyone needs to contact our staff who were previously based at Robert Owen House, then they should continue to use the same phone numbers and email addresses as previously.”
Robert Owen House is located close to the town’s police station, approximately half a mile away from the Park Offices.
