Nottinghamshire County Council’s new low carbon, all-electric office continues to take shape with all three floors and a roof now in place.
The new office, which is along the A611 Annesley Road near Hucknall, is to be known as Oak House and will have at least a dozen oak trees planted as part of the site’s green space.
Oak House is designed to help bring long-term savings for the taxpayer and environment as part of a wider project to move more front-line council services into cost-effective, energy saving buildings.
Council Leader, Councillor Ben Bradley, welcomed the building’s progress. He said: “Not only will it be the home of some of our front-line services and the place where all council decisions are made, it is an investment which will help bring jobs, skills and more investment into the Hucknall area.
“It’s all part of our wider plan to prioritise delivering services rather than just running expensive buildings, which is why we are reducing the number of council offices from 17 to nine.”
The new office is being designed, project and cost-managed by Arc Partnership and delivered through Arc’s construction partner, Morgan Sindall Construction.
A target of 86 per cent of local spend has been set for the project and associated infrastructure works, with subcontractors and tradespeople located within 20 miles of the site.
Councillor Keith Girling, Cabinet Member for Economic Development and Asset Management, said: “I’m delighted that local small and medium-sized businesses are already benefitting from this project, which is great news for the local economy.
“Oak House is a fitting name for this new office. An oak tree is the main image on our council’s logo, which is of course a nod to the county’s world-famous Major Oak.”
A former Nottingham Trent University student, Luke Meville is now working as a graduate site manager for Morgan Sindall Construction at the Oak House site.
This is his second stint working on a county council-funded construction project and is continuing to help him get more experience under his belt, boosting his skills and career chances.
Luke was an assistant site manager when he worked on the new school building at Millside Spencer Academy in East Leake.
Luke explained how the size and scale of the Oak House building is helping him to progress. He said: “The complexity of the building, with it being three floors, and the prestige of it being a new council office has been massively beneficial to me. It’s another step up the career ladder working on this site.”
As well as the council’s civic, democratic and leadership functions, it will be the new home to two key frontline services, the Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) for vulnerable children and adults, and its customer service centre, which handles all public enquiries.
Construction work is still on track to be completed in early 2025.
Thanks to a low carbon design, high insulation levels and heat absorbing features of the new building, heating bills will be kept as low as possible and to help meet the Council’s environmental ambitions. This design will also help keep the building cool in the warmer months, so no air-conditioning will be installed. Rooftop solar panels will also help generate electricity.
Meanwhile, construction of a new section of road and roundabout within the site, which began in September 2023, is now complete. This will provide access when the new office is open and ultimately help traffic flow ahead of planned new housing due to be built on the wider site.
The wider site is planned to be regenerated into a new community which will include 805 new homes, led by Vistry Partnerships. The site is on council-owned land, which is mixed-use land that has been earmarked for development for more than a decade.
