Renfrewshire Council

Anyone working at or visiting Renfrewshire House recently will have noticed that the lower ground floor has been cleared of desks, and although collaboration space is still accessible, this will be removed in the coming weeks, so this area is no longer available to work from. The Housing teams previously based on these floors have moved and are now together on the fourth floor south.

Our Property Services colleagues, previously based on the first floor have also moved, to the fifth floor south, to be part of the new Environment, Housing, and Infrastructure (EH&I) village on the fourth and fifth floors. Having moved from the previous Communities and Housing service to the new EH&I service at the beginning of this year, this means these teams will be closer to their service colleagues, many of whom they work with daily. Similarly, colleagues in the new Climate, Public Protection and Roads team have all moved from various locations across the building and are now based on the fourth-floor core.

Colleagues in the Procurement, City Deal and Programme Management Unit (PMU) teams have also moved to the fifth floor south, and this will free up more space on the first floor. Our Legal and Committee Services colleagues will however remain on the first floor but will consolidate onto one side of the floor plate to increase space for other services.

New arrivals

Work is currently underway to prepare the first floor for the arrival of our Renfrewshire HSCP colleagues, currently based at Abbey House. The move is expected to take place at the end of November, and we are working with them to ensure they have the required meeting rooms and storage space for their aids and adaptations. At the same time, our Justice Social Work teams and their business support colleagues will move to the ground floor, where our housing colleagues were previously based.

Our Child Care Social Work teams and their business support colleagues based at Abbey House will also be relocating to the lower ground floor of Renfrewshire House later this year. Due to the nature of their work a considerable amount of work is required to prepare the space and create the appropriate environment. Given the bespoke requirements for family rooms, confidential and safe spaces, it's expected that this work will be completed in 2024.

Following these moves, you will no longer be able to book meeting rooms on the lower ground, and first floor as these are dedicated for colleagues who have moved from Abbey House. These meeting rooms have been taken off the booking system, therefore you may receive a cancellation notice. If not, please cancel any bookings you have made for meeting rooms on either of these floors.

Next steps

Once we've completed the necessary changes to the lower ground, ground and first floors, we'll turn our attention to the second and third floors. We've already held discussions with teams to understand their requirements and we expect to introduce village working, where teams manage an agreed number of desks, across both floors, in the new year.

As more villages and fixed spaces are introduced there is less requirement for booking desks, and we'll be removing this facility from the end of November.

Equipment

Given the amount of equipment that was removed from Renfrewshire House during the pandemic, our ICT colleagues have been checking the quantities and replacing as and where required.

One such change has been replacing docking stations with cables that connect to both the network and a monitor. These are much cheaper to replace than the existing docking stations, however it is important that employees do not remove these or any equipment from its current location.

Equipment being removed from desks and the building is an ongoing issue. If you have removed any equipment, which you no longer require, please return it at your earliest convenience. Once villages have been set-up it's the responsibility of your team/manager, to ensure the equipment remains in place and cover the cost of any replacements.

If you do need equipment to support working at home or hybrid working, then you should speak to your line manager and follow the usual procurement process for new equipment.

Parking at Renfrewshire House

A working group of colleagues from across the council have also been working together to develop a new approach to parking at Renfrewshire House.

While a final decision on how this will work is yet to be made, our approach will need to reflect our ambitions to become a net zero organisation by 2030, and the Council's overall Town Centre Parking Strategy.

Though the car park will continue to be for the sole use of council employees and other Renfrewshire House tenants from Monday to Friday, it will continue to be available to the public in the evening and at weekends.

The new plans are being finalised and will be shared with you as soon as they have. It's expected that the new approach will be introduced from April 2024.

For the time being, the car park will continue to operate on a first come, first served basis. It's important to remember that no council employee is guaranteed a space within the Renfrewshire House car park apart from those with spaces under agreed leases. When the car park is full, we ask that you find an alternative parking space, out with the car park.

One nearby alternative if the car park is full, is Saucel St car park. It has 65 spaces, is a short walk (behind Abbey Pharmacy) from Renfrewshire House, and for the time being parking here (Monday to Friday) is free of charge for all council employees.

Published on Thursday 16 November 2023