Council office maintenance and improvement

The council has recently undertaken improvement works to office accommodation in Delamere House, Crewe and Macclesfield Town Hall. These works are essential in maintaining an acceptable, professional and healthy working environment for our staff, councillors and visitors.

Following the closure of the Westfields office in Sandbach, which resulted in significant financial savings, there has been an increased staff occupancy at both Delamere House in Crewe and Macclesfield Town Hall. These buildings, particularly the kitchen areas, have not seen improvement works in many years. With the rise in staff usage, maintaining high standards of hygiene and cleanliness is crucial. Without this investment now, office accommodation would fall further below acceptable standards.

Maintenance and improvement works

The maintenance and improvement works in these buildings include deep cleaning, rearrangement of office space and touch-up decoration. The council has also provided basic kitchen equipment for staff and visitor use, such as corporate mugs, glasses and cutlery, which cost £1,793.44.

To ensure council offices remain clean and efficient, there is a programme of work to install dishwashers in kitchen areas, which is being done in a phased approach to minimise disruption.

The cost to purchase the nine dishwashers and materials for installation at Delamere House is £6,934.52, and at Macclesfield Town Hall (eleven appliances) is £8,941.45.

Investing in these durable and efficient appliances, with a ten-year warranty, will reduce the need for frequent replacements and repairs, ultimately saving money in the longer-term.

The installation was planned, project managed and executed by Equans Services Ltd (Equans), as part of the council’s facilities management contract with Equans. This contract provides facilities management services and oversight of capital and revenue projects for a minimum duration of seven years.

Decision and funding

The decision to delegate authority to the executive director place to award contracts to providers meeting the specified requirements was made on 12 January 2021.

Facilities Management Procurement decision report (PDF, 138 KB)

The total project cost relating to works to install dishwashers across both sites is £45,056.70. This includes adapting kitchen cabinets, installing plumbing and electrical sockets, amending the cold-water feed, changing waste traps, making good the kitchen decoration (painting, sealing etc), and technical project management. 

The works were funded from the estates service budget, which is a specific, dedicated budget within the council’s overall budget which is agreed at Full Council each February. The estates service establishes its own planned and reactive maintenance/investment programme to achieve best value over the longest possible operational lifespan of any building. These specific works were approved by the executive director of place.

The council is committed to open data and transparency. Open data means making the non-personal information we hold, freely available to everyone in open, machine readable formats that are easy to reuse. You can view the data we hold on our open data and transparency page.