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Council set to build £1m centre in Barnard Castle
Aug 3, 2010
A £1m base for children and family services could be built in Teesdale.
Durham County Council wants to construct the centre next to The Hub – the multi-million pound youth complex currently under construction at Shaw Bank, Barnard Castle.
The new Barnard Castle Integrated Services Hub would
accommodate local authority and health staff, allowing them to work closer together, councillors heard last week.
Cash has already been made available for the building from the Government’s Co-Location scheme, however officials are worried the cash could be withdrawn if contracts are not signed within the next two months.
As well as children and family services, the centre would be a base for county council and NHS staff, including careers advisors, behaviour support workers, educational psychologists, educational welfare officers, health visitors, school nurses and family workers.
Members of the council’s ruling cabinet were told on Wednesday that the new building – which would match the distinctive design of The Hub – could to be up and running by early 2011.
The centre would be built on land owned by Teesdale Community Resources and the council wants to enter into a 99-year lease for the land – paying “peppercorn rent”. The authority gifted the land to TCR in 2009. A report to councillors said that sharing the facilities that will be available at The Hub from this autumn would bring “£6m of facilities for a cost of less than £1m”.
The report added that the proposals could help secure the long-term future of the youth Hub, which needs to raise running costs, because “payment will be made for use of main through the main facilities and through the terms of the proposed lease,” thereby “guaranteeing revenue stream”.
However, the report’s authors added a note of caution, saying: “TCR may be disinclined to proceed with the project if a mutually advantageous arrangement cannot be agreed”.
They added that delaying the build “may lead to ‘claw back’ of unspent grant by central government” as part of the coalition’s current savings drive. The cabinet was warned that all contracts must to be signed by September to avoid this.
The centre is one of nine planned for throughout the county to be paid for by the Co-Location Fund.