23/01/2024

Post on Cllr David MacDonald facebook page

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Cllr David Macdonald - An Independent voice for people.
7 h

I wish to share some facts with you.

At the last council meeting on December 13th 2023, the new Chief Executive of the Council, Steven Quinn put forward his plan for £4.66 million pounds of capital money to be spent on the refurbishment of the council chambers and HQ building at Eastwood Park.

The council leader, Cllr Owen O'Donnell moved a motion to approve that council spend and it was approved.

My colleagues, Annette Ireland and Chris Lunday and myself did not vote to approve of this going ahead. All other councillors present that day did.

Both the Chief Executive and the leader of the council, Cllr Owen O'Donnell defended the move stating that such a spend was needed to create a new building to inspire good decisions to be made by council workers and officers working within it and also to be able to host new ways of working in hybrid situations such as meetings held on MS Teams.

They also suggested that a reserve savings would be made of £400k a year by closing down a leased building in Spiersbridge and moving the staff there to the new HQ. This is inaccurate information.

As it stands the council HQ is practically empty and has been for almost 4 years since COVID emerged.

On any given day I have entered it only around 20 people are in the building at one time. It is more than capable of housing any new staff that are moved from Spiersbridge without the need for a refurbishment.

It had been highlighted that the boilers were coming to the end of their serviceable life in around 5 to 10 years.

But certainly not now.

Our roads are crumbling. Some of our primary schools are in desperate need of upgrade.

Some of our council homes are in an unfit state of disrepair.

Yet there doesn't seem to be any money for these much needed capital spends.

But when it comes to upgrading the HQ and the council chambers the money is miraculously available.

In my view this decision is wrong in every way and it represents the worst and everything that is wrong within councils.

As a councillor I am beyond disappointed.

I am angry about it. Frankly, it makes me depressed and leaves me feeling that being an elected member is a futile exercise if this is what I am forced to sit and watch transpire.

These are grown adults playing around with money that doesn't belong to them as if this is some sort of board game playing for fun.

The only thing I can do about this is to scream about it from the highest hilltop to let you all know exactly what is happening.

So in that respect my privileged position has it's value.

This decision, in my view, represents the most flagrant misspending of much needed public money at a time when residents are getting less delivered to them while being asked to tighten their belts.

You, the residents of East Renfrewshire, deserve so much better from people in charge of public finances.

7/2/2024

Post on Cllr David MacDonald facebook page

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Cllr David Macdonald - An Independent voice for people.
1 d

I'll be continuing to share this for the foreseeable future. It's important you all know what is going on behind the scenes.

I will not let this find itself being kicked into the long grass.


23 January 2024 at 02:13 ·
Cllr David Macdonald - An Independent voice for people.
7 h

I wish to share some facts with you.

At the last council meeting on December 13th 2023, the new Chief Executive of the Council, Steven Quinn put forward his plan for £4.66 million pounds of capital money to be spent on the refurbishment of the council chambers and HQ building at Eastwood Park.

The council leader, Cllr Owen O'Donnell moved a motion to approve that council spend and it was approved.

My colleagues, Annette Ireland and Chris Lunday and myself did not vote to approve of this going ahead. All other councillors present that day did.

Both the Chief Executive and the leader of the council, Cllr Owen O'Donnell defended the move stating that such a spend was needed to create a new building to inspire good decisions to be made by council workers and officers working within it and also to be able to host new ways of working in hybrid situations such as meetings held on MS Teams.

They also suggested that a reserve savings would be made of £400k a year by closing down a leased building in Spiersbridge and moving the staff there to the new HQ. This is inaccurate information.

As it stands the council HQ is practically empty and has been for almost 4 years since COVID emerged.

On any given day I have entered it only around 20 people are in the building at one time. It is more than capable of housing any new staff that are moved from Spiersbridge without the need for a refurbishment.

It had been highlighted that the boilers were coming to the end of their serviceable life in around 5 to 10 years.

But certainly not now.

Our roads are crumbling. Some of our primary schools are in desperate need of upgrade.

Some of our council homes are in an unfit state of disrepair.

Yet there doesn't seem to be any money for these much needed capital spends.

But when it comes to upgrading the HQ and the council chambers the money is miraculously available.

In my view this decision is wrong in every way and it represents the worst and everything that is wrong within councils.

As a councillor I am beyond disappointed.

I am angry about it. Frankly, it makes me depressed and leaves me feeling that being an elected member is a futile exercise if this is what I am forced to sit and watch transpire.

These are grown adults playing around with money that doesn't belong to them as if this is some sort of board game playing for fun.

The only thing I can do about this is to scream about it from the highest hilltop to let you all know exactly what is happening.

So in that respect my privileged position has it's value.

This decision, in my view, represents the most flagrant misspending of much needed public money at a time when residents are getting less delivered to them while being asked to tighten their belts.

You, the residents of East Renfrewshire, deserve so much better from people in charge of public finances.

4/3/2024

Post on Cllr David MacDonald facebook page

www.facebook.com/MacdonaldTheIndependent/

Cllr David Macdonald - An Independent voice for people. is at East Renfrewshire Council.
1 d · Giffnock ·

I want to bring this urgent matter to your attention once again...the people of East Renfrewshire.

It is important that you all know what is going on at this council and the decisions that have been made in this chamber.

In December of 2023, the leader of East Renfrewshire Council, Cllr Owen O'Donnell tabled a motion to approve a report authored by newly appointed Chief Executive Mr. Steven Quinn.

That report recommended that a £4.6 million capital spend be approved to finance upgrades to the council chambers and council headquarters building in Eastwood Park.

That motion was approved.

Myself, Cllr Annette Ireland and Cllr Chris Lunday did not vote to approve this.

This spend has now been approved and the work will commence in the spring of 2025.

The work will take approximately 12 -18 months.

£4.6 million. Let that sink in.

Our roads network in East Renfrewshire is terrible.

Some of our residential streets resemble farm tracks with potholes so deep they could easily destroy a car suspension or cause a cyclist to have a serious accident.

The state of some of our schools are in disrepair.

Many of our council homes are not meeting the legal standard and tenants are being willfully forced to live in dangerous situations with mould and dampness present in their homes.

It's an absolute disgrace.

But yet, our council leader, Cllr Owen O'Donnell feels it entirely appropriate to prioritise a spend of £4.6 million of capital money, your money, on sprucing up his leader's office, the HQ and the chambers ahead of the needs of children and teachers and school staff in our schools, tenants living in rotting council homes and road users who are travelling on hazardous roads.

This is a clear example of a complete failure of leadership.

I have lost all confidence and trust in his leadership of this council.

It is now time he does the right thing and resign as leader of East Renfrewshire Council.

13/3/2024

Posts on Cllr David MacDonald facebook page

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Cllr David Macdonald - An Independent voice for people.
15 h ·

The council applied for funding from the government for the upgrade of Carolside Primary School and Cross Arthurlie Primary School for upgrades urgently required.

Those applications were not approved and they didn't receive the funds.

This happened in October 2023.

Fast forward a couple of months to the meeting of the full council in December 2023.

There is capital money available within East Renfrewshire Council's account to put towards these upgrades and instead the Chief Executive of East Renfrewshire Council brought a report to full council recommending that £4.6 million is spent on the upgrade of the council HQ, the leaders office and the council chambers.

The leader of East Renfrewshire council, Cllr Owen O'Donnell, moved a motion to approve these recommendations and this was passed.

The work will commence in early 2025.

Cllr Owen O'Donnell wants to spruce up his office surroundings and those of senior officers at the council rather than prioritise this money towards these two primary schools.

That's not even taking into account the dire state of some other schools in the school estate, some of the roads in the area and mould and damp evident in council homes.

I have completely lost all confidence in the leadership at this council.


Cllr David Macdonald - An Independent voice for people.
15 h ·

This from the leader, Cllr Owen O'Donnell, who tabled a motion, which was passed, to approve a £4.6 million council capital spend to refurbish the council HQ in Giffnock, the leader's office and the council chambers.

"determined to deliver for the people of East Renfrewshire" ?

#Shambles

Agenda Item 11

EAST RENFREWSHIRE COUNCIL
11 December 2024
Report by Director of Environment
EASTWOOD HEADQUARTERS REFURBISHMENT – UPDATE REPORT

PURPOSE OF REPORT
1. This report provides an update on the Eastwood Headquarters (HQ) refurbishment
project.

RECOMMENDATIONS

2. It is recommended that the Council:
a) consider a request to increase the Eastwood Headquarters refurbishment budget
allocation by £1.3m to £6.16m;

b) approve the reduced scope of the works as set out in option 4, and described in
paragraphs 19, 20 and 21; and

c) approve that refurbishment works at Eastwood Headquarters proceed.

BACKGROUND

3. Eastwood HQ was built in 1980. The building has not benefited from any significant
investment in or upgrades to much of its core infrastructure since its construction. Many of the building’s original fittings remain, including windows, staff welfare facilities, internal finishes, ICT and electrical infrastructure. These fittings are beyond their design life, inadequate for today’s workforce needs and digital requirements and require replacement.

4. The refurbishment of Eastwood HQ was approved at Council in December 2023. A
budget of £4.66m was approved for these works, encompassing modernisation works to the
Headquarters Offices, the Council Chambers and Net Zero improvements. Subsequent to
this, a further £0.20m was approved by Cabinet on 3 October 2024 to fund network cabling
infrastructure at HQ. This created a total budgetary provision of £4.86m.

5. The Eastwood HQ refurbishment aligns with the decision taken by the Council in June
2023 not to renew the lease on the Spiersbridge office when it expires in February 2026. This will allow significant long-term savings in our revenue budgets, in the order of £450k per annum recurrent before offsetting any borrowing or other costs, derived from the closure of the Spiersbridge office. The project also extends the life of Eastwood HQ for a further 20 plus years.

6. In addition to upgrading the core infrastructure, there remains a desire to repurpose
Eastwood HQ to be a modern, fit-for-purpose office accommodation. It is recognised that the way we use our office space has changed in recent years. Technology has transformed the way we work and deliver services. The use of technology such as Microsoft Teams means
that office space needs to support a mixture of in-person and hybrid meetings. Effective and productive working is substantially influenced by access to technology and workspaces to collaborate. This aligns with our People Strategy 2024-27 which states our vision is to have engaged employees who are motivated to deliver quality services for our customers.

7. There is positive evidence that working in modern, fit-for-purpose office
accommodation can bring significant benefits including:

• Much greater opportunity for communication and collaboration among and across
teams. It also allows for informal conversation and a free flow of ideas and opinions;

• Building relationships with colleagues and strengthening teams;

• Face-to-face learning is an important part of overall learning. There is great value in
sitting with and learning from others in the course of daily routines and work;

• Greater opportunities for informal and formal mentoring; and

• Attracting the best talent to work in the organisation.

PROJECT UPDATE

8. In the report to Council in December 2023, costs were estimated at £4.66m. These
cost projections were based on the findings of a non-invasive survey and were caveated thus:
“It should be noted that the costs prepared as part of the initial feasibility for HQ are based on Q1 2023 indices with allowances for inflation forecasts. In addition, there is still the need to undertake further disruptive/intrusive surveys on the building in relation to the preferred option which could potentially have a bearing on overall costs”.

9. The disruptive/invasive surveying exercise, as recommended and noted above, has
now concluded. It has identified that very substantial investment in the building’s core services infrastructure is now required, to address both health and safety issues and to ensure that the building complies with required legislative standards and is fit for purpose for a further 20 plus years. These works include, amongst others, replacement of distribution boards, ventilation distribution systems, heating upgrades, and re-wiring of both the electrical power and ICT cabling and associated infrastructure.

10. Whilst these works come at a substantial additional cost, they will significantly extend the useful life of the asset which, alongside savings from building rationalisation, was the key objective of this project. They will also significantly improve the thermal comfort and welfare facilities available to a significantly increased number of occupants, which are currently generally in a poor state of repair.

11. An opportunity has also emerged to relocate our second ICT data centre (DC2) which
is currently externally located at a lease cost of approximately £50k per annum. Relocating this to Eastwood HQ has several advantages for the Council. It enhances our business continuity arrangements, disaster recovery, and load balancing arrangements across our network, which is important in the context of demand for technology services growing exponentially. This would assist in the Council’s journey to optimise network performance and the user experience, and allow for more efficient data management. This is also an additional saving opportunity which was not originally identified in the December 2023 report. It requires a slight amendment to the proposed floorplan layout, which will not have any adverse impact on the construction budget.

12. In summary, whilst the structure of the building is sound, much of the core
infrastructure is obsolete and/or life expired and/or in an unsatisfactory condition, which could represent a threat to business continuity or service provision if left unmanaged. The core services infrastructure of Eastwood HQ requires to be upgraded in order to extend the useful life of the asset for at least a further 20 years. There has also been significant feedback from employee health and wellbeing surveys regarding the state of the employee welfare facilities in Eastwood HQ. The planned relocation of a substantial number of staff from Spiersbridge into Eastwood HQ will put increasing pressure on already inadequate facilities in terms of ICT and electrical networks, collaborative office/meeting spaces, toilets and kitchen facilities.

13. The updated cost projections, following the invasive surveying exercise, to deliver fully on the originally desired outcomes as set out in the December 2023 report to Council, indicate that this would require an increase in budget from the currently approved £4.86m to £7.20m, an increase of £2.34m. This original scope represented modernisation throughout all of the office accommodation and Council Chambers. This would realise the full benefits as summarised in paragraphs 4 – 7.

14. Council has a choice on how to proceed and a range of options are given below for consideration:

Option 1 – Original scope of works

Increasing the budget allocation from £4.86m to £7.20m to fulfil the original scope of
works as set out in December 2023 paper to Council i.e. full modernisation of office
accommodation and Council Chambers. This option would deliver on all of the
previous benefits set out and accommodate the additional staff who would move from
Spiersbridge when the lease ends.

• Option 2 – Minimal scope of works

Retaining and confirming the existing approved budget of £4.86m as the maximum
allocated for this project and confining the scope of works to what is affordable within
that envelope. A full explanation of what this entails is set out in paragraph 17.

• Option 3 – Defer works

Deferring, for one or more years, the delivery of this project. It should be noted that
this option would not allow the planned move of all staff from Spiersbridge to Eastwood
HQ. A full explanation of what this entails is set out in paragraph 18.

• Option 4 – Reduced schedule of works

Value engineering and reducing the scope of the project, the aim being to reach a
reasonable compromise between outcomes and available resource. A full explanation
of what this entails is set out in paragraph 19.