Since Voreda House opened as the new Westmorland and Furness Council office in a June, our readers have been asking a lot of questions about the building, so we put some of those questions to Westmorland and Furness Council this week and had a look around the new £8.3million council office block with them.
Voreda House opened on the 17th of June as the new base in Penrith for Westmorland and Furness Council but work to convert Voreda House began as a plan for a new headquarters for the now scrapped Eden District Council back in late 2019 leading to the purchase of the former Tax office and NHS offices in 2020 by the council.
The project drew controversy from the outset from within the council and wider community. The project has seen delays and costs that have spiralled to £8.3 million and even caused the group of independent councillors on Eden Council to split over the plans.
One of the main concerns and questions people have raised is the spiralling costs it has faced. We put that question to the council asking them “What is the final build cost for Voreda House including the interior furnishing?”
The council have told us “the final figure has not changed from the revised £8.3m advised in late 2023 and covers all build costs, including furnishing.”
Another question we put to the councils came from a former Eden Council staff member who wanted to know if conditions in the original planning application approval for Voreda House that included a condition that “Prior to the occupation of the building, an industrial and commercial noise survey needed to be undertaken and submitted to and approved in writing by the Local Planning Authority.”
The council said “A noise assessment was undertaken that evidenced the building met the necessary standards and hence mitigations such as acoustic shielding or louvres were not required. This was not submitted prior to occupation.
The council now intends to submit an application seeking to remove this condition, supported by a technical note that indicates there are no noise issues associated with the installed plant and machinery and that requirements of the condition are being satisfied. Environmental Health Officers will need to assess to confirm this as part of the process and a full consultation will take place allowing both statutory consultees and members of the public to make comments.”
One local resident raised a question they had raided also with the deputy leader of the council.
Local businesses currently are submitting planning applications in regard to measures to address Radon Gas in Penrith including the NatWest Bank.
The resident wanted to know if monitoring and measures for Radon Gas had been implemented at Voreda House as part of the planning and development.
The council said “Radon was considered and factored into the building regulations approval process and radon barriers were installed as part of building regulation compliance. This was among a number of health and safety elements that needed to be resolved prior to receiving the sign off for occupation.”
Voreda House was promoted from the start of the planning for the building as a Passivhaus building as part of the councils Net Zero plans and was said to be the first Passivhaus retrofit office block in the UK.
We asked Westmorland and Furness Council if Voreda House has achieved the Passivhaus standard certification that the building was planned to achieve.
The council confirmed that Voreda House received Passivhaus Enerphit accreditation in June as planned.
The EnerPHit standard provides a Passive-oriented set of requirements for retrofits. It is designed to significantly reduce the energy consumption of a building while allowing a realistic amount of wiggle room for fixed factors in a project rather than the full Passivhaus requirements and standards.
A question raised by a former Eden District Councillor we put to the council was about a tree Eden District Council cut down as part of the construction work. Eden Council had agreed after a heated council meeting on the subject to use the tree to create an art installation in the reception area of Voreda House.
We asked Westmorland and Furness council if this has been implemented in the finished building?
The council said “We are progressing the commissioning of a wooden art installation, on a natural world theme which will also involve working with local schoolchildren. It is yet to be determined if this will go in reception, another part of the building or externally.”
Westmorland and Furness council started an internal audit in November 2023 into the delivery of Voreda House that was expected earlier this year but was itself delayed we asked if the council have a date the review will be completed and made public.
The council said they expect to brief stakeholders on the lessons learnt review in the near future.
On our tour of the new council building the corporate plan white walls and bare do create ceilings with industrial tracks carrying cables and lights made the building appear cold and clinical compared to the Listed Town Hall next door the council had close the doors on in June.
The new Voreda House reception area accessed via an automatic glass door that could easy be the entrance to a fast food establishment or petrol station opens into a compact reception area with concrete ceilings and grey carpet tiles with white plaster walls and fake wood panelling on the rear wall behind a cold stone reception desk.
The reception leads on three small meeting rooms that will be used for the council staff to speak privately with members of the public.
The corridors leads onto the Paterdale room that hoses what would have been the council chamber of Eden Council had it occupied the building although it offers meeting room that would have been a cosy fit for 38 councillors.
The ground floor has a rang of smaller meeting rooms for council teams to work on projects and hood meetings along with staff kitchen and welfare areas and two rooms that will have some scratching their head a shower room with individual shower cubical and a prayer room.
The upper two floor provide an open plan office area with some smaller meeting areas and staff welfare areas carrying on the plain white walls and bare concrete ceilings creating a space that appears thorough design to be half finished.
The exterior of the building needs no description given as all have seen the façade describe by some as a Lego building constructed in the middle of Penriths conservation area in stark contrast to the grand stone build town hall.
Many want to know what the future will be for the town and that the building will be maintained and not just left to deteriorate.
We asked the council a question raised by a reader about the ongoing plan for the upkeep and maintenance of the now closed building that has had a number of structural issues in the last 3 years from sections falling from the roofline to flooding of the cellar with the closure what level of ongoing building monitoring and maintenance will be maintained by the council?
The council said “We are complying with all insurance requirements for holding vacant buildings including upkeep, maintenance and security of the building. In addition, the legacy council had vacant building procedures which includes periodic monitoring to ensure buildings are secured and maintained to a safe, wind and watertight standard.
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