A council headquarters is ‘too large’ and ‘too inefficient’ for the current authority structure.

As Flintshire Council looks to continue to save money its leader and chief executive have said its current home at County Hall in Mold was not currently meeting its requirements.

Colin Everett, authority chief executive, told members of the corporate resources overview and scrutiny committee that two wings of the County Hall campus represented a ‘cost liability’ to the council.

Cllr Aaron Shotton, Labour council leader, said the site was currently too big for the authority's workforce.

Councillors debated the future of the campus during a discussion on stage one of the council's budget setting process.

It was revealed last week that in the provisional local government settlements for 2018-19, Flintshire faces a 0.9 per cent funding cut, the second highest in Wales, adding up to £1.6 million of financial pressures to the £11.7m funding ‘gap’ previously forecast.

It was said that while the council was reducing office space as it restructured its workforce, it was ‘still costing a lot’.

Phase four of the council site was mothballed and vacated in 2015 as highways, education, planning, public protection and social
services will be moved into other parts of the site.

Mr Everett said where the council had vacant premises, the authority still held a non-domestic rates liability which represented “dead money”.

Cllr Shotton said: “There has been some work done on office space and most notably in my area, the loss of offices in Connah’s Quay.”

He added that this had made a ‘consequent saving’ to the authority.

Cllr Patrick Heesom, Mostyn, raised the future of the campus as he said the discussion was getting to ‘a critical point’.

“The inability to provide any more expenditure is staring us in the face,” he said.

“The question of buildings is creeping up on the inside track and in the area I represent, we look with horror upon moving out of this building or this area.”

Mr Everett said optimisations of savings had been made at council sites in Alltami and Flint but two wings of the current County Hall campus were now ‘a cost liability to us’.

Cllr Shotton said that the campus was ‘too large for the workforce, too inefficient in terms of age’.

He added that the council was ‘duty bound’ to ensure that it frees up revenue though and was ‘better than a parochial debate’ on where the seat of local government should reside.

Calls made about County Hall's future date back to 2010 when the main building was deemed ‘unfit for purpose’ by senior councillors.

In 2014, when parts of the site were beginning to be mothballed, Cllr Carolyn Thomas, a former authority chairman, said the County Hall building was ‘too big for purpose’.

The future of County Hall will be debated by members of Flintshire Council’s cabinet behind closed doors on Tuesday.