Claim Yeovil council offices should be 'abandoned' to save money

Somerset Council currently operates some of its customer services from Petters House, located on Petters Way in Yeovil town centre.

South Somerset District Council (which was formally abolished in April) began a feasibility study in January to see whether the building should be sold off and services relocated elsewhere in a bid to cut costs and streamline the new council’s property portfolio.

Councillor Henry Hobhouse has now said the council needs to “abandon Petters Way pretty quickly” because it will cost too much to make its offices “habitable” and energy efficient.

Mr Hobhouse (who represents the Castle Cary division) made his comments at a meeting of the council’s corporate and resources scrutiny committee in Bridgwater on September 7.

He said: “Both Brympton Way and Petters Way are seriously lacking. Petters Way is the only council building in south Somerset with single glazing.

“It needs a major amount of work just to make it habitable. We tried four years to go into the library and we had problems with the county council to move in there.

“We need to abandon Petters Way pretty quickly, to be frank with you.

“There are also problems with Brympton Way – it’s the metal structure of the building. We had infra-red photographs taken and every one of the metal beams is leaking heat in the winter into the environment.

“We need, before we make any decisions that are easy, to look at the building first from a climate point of view – and I’m betting most of our council buildings would fail that test.”

Councillor Henry Hobhouse addresses a council meeting. (Image: South Somerset District Council)

Petters House is just over 100 yards from the library on King George Street, and both are within very easy reach of multiple town centre car parks.

Sara Kelly, the council’s property rationalisation programme manager, said the council was seriously considering relocating services into the library to provide a one-stop shop for residents.

She said: “We feel this situation gives us an opportunity to look to relocate our customer services into the library, in order to provide a single customer service delivery point in Yeovil town centre.

“At the moment, customers are going to two sites in very close proximity for two different services, and that seems silly.”

Yeovil Library underwent a de-carbonisation scheme in November 2021, with an air source heat pump, LED lighting, additional insulation and more thermally efficient windows being put in place at a cost of £427,000.

If the council’s feasibility study indicates that the relocation would be viable, a time-scale for the transition of services would be agreed and Petters Way would be sold off on the open market.

Councillor Lucy Trimnell (Wincanton and Bruton) said the council should look at selling off its Brympton Way offices first to encourage more people to come into the town centre.

She said: “When it came to looking at the two district council sites in Yeovil, I wonder why Petters Way was the one we decided would be the best one to sell on?

“It can’t help feeling with all the money that’s going into the regeneration of Yeovil, had we brought all the staff into tow, we would have had the footfall into the town and it would have been supporting the town centre.

“The offices on the Brympton Way industrial estate has to be accessed by car – I know there is a bus stop, but it’s about a six-minute walk.”

Oliver Woodhams, the council’s service director for strategic asset management, said no formal decision to sell either building had yet been taken.

He said: “We haven’t made a decision – we have declared that property surplus yet.

“There is thinking and checking to do – there’s a technical question about where our infrastructure and communication rooms go.

“Our thinking as an officer team is that it’s probably not going to be viable to use Petters Way as an officer base for Yeovil, and we’re working on the assumption that we are going to need to continue to have, as a wider unitary council, some sort of office presence in our major towns, including Yeovil.

“It would be great to have that in town centres and support regeneration efforts, but it’s going to be a challenge.”

Councillor Ros Wyke, portfolio holder for economic development, planning and assets, said the council needed to ensure whatever decision it took would be future-proof, describing it as “a chicken-and-egg situation”.

Ms Wyke (whose Mendip West division includes the villages west of Glastonbury, Street and Wells) said: “You’ve got to make sure that decisions anywhere down the line not only make sense now, but don’t compromise decisions to be made in the future.

“It is a real challenge, and it’s one which we’re doing against a changing backdrop.

“We need a much broader discussion about how we actually take the broader picture [forward. I was very surprised that I didn’t inherit master-plans for each of the towns, and we need to do that work.

“That’s not cheap work, and it’s not going to be done quickly, but whatever we do in Yeovil we need to look at it holistically – not just from an asset point of view, but from a regeneration point of view. It is a juggling act.”

Speaking after the meeting, Councillor Adam Dance, portfolio holder for public health, equalities and diversity, said the library would be a more welcoming place for residents than the current officers.

Mr Dance – who will be standing to be Yeovil’s next MP at the upcoming general election – said: “Moving the contact customer service desk into the library is a positive move for Yeovil residents, as it makes it more accessible for all. It also means it will be available on a Saturday.

“The library is a more welcoming place that Petters House, which is an old building and would need work.

“A greal deal of work needs to be done across the county. Now we are one council, we have far too many offices and we need to look at reducing that. There’s no point keeping offices if they’re empty.”