Renovations that plan to upgrade the Isle of Wight Council’s main Newport building have again come under fire.
As part of the authority’s future finances, £900,000 has been set aside to reduce the carbon footprint of County Hall — partially funded by a government scheme — to improve windows, toilets and lifts.
A total of £700,000 has been allocated by the government, with a further £200,000 from the Isle of Wight Council, with the aim to make the home of the Isle of Wight Council more energy efficient and to hit a carbon net zero goal by 2030.
If completed, it would reduce the council’s carbon emissions by 552 tonnes a year – 12% of its footprint.
Improvements to heating and lighting would save £282,937 a year, it has been claimed.
There are additional plans in the budget to allow for other renovations, including £500,000 to be split between air conditioning in the server room and on an uninterruptible power supply and generator.
The scheme has been in the firing line from Conservative group members, who believe County Hall should be demolished and affordable housing be built there instead. But, speaking at a meeting last week, cabinet member Cllr Jonathan Bacon told fellow councillors there are no plans to knock down the Newport town centre building.
It functions as the authority’s hub, he said, as more departments have moved to Newport and is now the centre of the council’s operations.
Under the scheme, more than £2.5 million of work has already been carried out on 10 Isle of Wight Council-owned properties, including the Heights and Medina Leisure Centres.
A meeting to decide the final 2023/24 budget will take place on 21st February.
These over paid idiots should take a pay cut to pay for it instead of putting our council tax up
This Is why they’ve had to increase our payments, to pay for upgrades in that eyesore in Newport. Something out of the 1960s.
How about ditching the air conditioning many offices don’t have air conditioning just open a window if it’s hot.
Are there any staff working here, I thought they were still working from home? It would be interesting to find out actually how many staff do work there on each floor. What a waste of money when people are struggling with no homes to go to, be better to use the money to renovate an old building for flats instead of putting people in B & Bs and hotels.
Just imagine how much good that £900,000 would do if it were spent on desperately needed services, they trot out the “carbon neutral” rubbish to try to justify squandering of our money.
Just turn your bloody heating down, like us, the freezing cold finacially shafted masses.
I wouldn’t worry about the carbon footprint, the cash cow’s will be burning their furniture soon ,,,,,,,
What is it they say you can’t get blood out of a stone ?????
Well you can’t keep wasting our money on you’re egos, !!!!!
Tell us exactly how many work in the council offices , how many are actually working in the office per day week etc ?????
Carbon neutral can wait …
Services can’t , ..
In the end it will cost you more through discounts on council tax due to people losing their home’s, then what ????
Put up council tax next year ?????
Once you start digging the hole gets bigger !!!!!!
The easiest way to reduce the 552 tonnes of emissions is to remove the useless out of date selfish councillors from the out of date building. Never have I ever witnessed such a bunch of incompetent self opinionated over paid twats!
I wonder what the councils reaction would be if all council tax payers on the Island cancelled their direct debits for a couple of months.
They wouldn’t hesitate for a second, they would take everyone to court just to smack you down, mind you it could never happen because the people would never get together against anything, yes you have the odd group of nimby’s now and again but this would require an island wide insurrection to work.
It’s a fact the council can bypass the High court. The first you would know about any action is a letter from the bailiffs. This is exactly what happened to a friend, turned out it was a council error. No apology from them of course for all the distress caused.
The air condition is for the server room to keep the computer equipment at the right temp. With regard to the comments about Councillors if you think you can do a better job stand in the next elections.
What are you talking about? There’s no reason to stand for election when I can come on here and slag off other peoples attempts to achieve something. It’s far easier to criticise than to actually try to get up off my sofa and do something myself!
I’m sure there’s plenty of households who would love to upgrade their homes for better energy efficiency, but simply can’t afford to, myself included. Do what the rest of us have to do, wear an extra jumper, and try opening the windows in summer. It’s all just adding insult to injury.
The money pit that just keeps taking!
And they all will get a above inflation pay rise come April.
Then the sh%t will hit the fan.
I thought this was a sick joke, but no all is in place for it to happen. Why? £900,000 for this concrete nightmare to be tarted up. Pointless. Knock it down, get rid of some of the useless councillors and build a smaller building to house the people that actually do the work, rather than spout ridiculous rubbish at the press.
Use this money towards BUILDING a bridge.
Shut County hall down.
Leave it to rot like the rest of Newport.
Not the time to be spending this sort of money when pleading poverty and cutting services
Another waste of money… half the building is barely used.. it is very ugly… look like a council apartment block from the late 50’s, never been repainted, and awful colours that are bleached., a complete eyesore for any visitors, let alone residents..
How about putting it to PUBLIC VOTE… oh no you won’t involve the public…
Hang on… A year ago they were going to invest £40 million
..
https://www.iow.gov.uk/news/Council-to-invest-40m-in-capital-plans
This bloody carbon bollocks net zero crap i thought the dump was going to be knocked down ??dont they all work from home now?