Shropshire Council’s Cabinet this morning decided to move forward with developing plans to refurbish Shirehall, the council’s Shrewsbury headquarters.

At the meeting, it was decided to spend £300,000 on developing plans for an estimated £18.7m refit.

Further work will now be undertaken to develop the proposal, a final recommendation on whether to go ahead would be decided by Cabinet and then Council.

The plans would see a complete a refurbishment and reconfiguration of the entire building, creating a much-improved, more flexible and less costly space, improve the reception and entrance arrangements and take up opportunities to bring partners into Shirehall via the One Public Estate programme and other arrangements, as well as bringing in commercial partners to key strategic street front locations.

A report read by Cabenit further stated that improvements to the building will reduce future maintenance liabilities, improve running costs and increase working efficiencies, provide a much-improved working environment, provide an opportunity to consolidate/rationalise the council’s administrative bases, generate income by attracting commercial lets, and boost public perception and sense of civic pride.

Ahead of this morning’s Cabenit meeting a decision, Steve Charmley, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for corporate support, said:

“Shirehall is an excellent base for the council and has been for many years. Despite its age, it remains so and is structurally sound with its key mechanical and electrical systems still viable.

“We are continuing to reduce the number of buildings we occupy to lower costs and to ensure that our limited funds are focused on services rather than buildings. Because of this, a greater proportion of our staff are now located in Shirehall, making it more important than ever to invest in it now in order to save in the future.

“The building is expensive to run – windows span its expanse, and they are all single-glazed, making it exteremly inefficient to run. There are also lots of repairs needed after limited investment over the years.

“We are excited about the prospect of sharing the space with others and making the building more commercial, and we’ve already had some interest. But we first need to ensure that the building is a place they want to be.”