ATTENTION is turning to demolishing New Town House and Quattro as the scheme to build the new council offices approaches completion.

The new offices will be based over five floors and have desk space for 800 workers.

It forms a key part of the Labour-run authority’s £142.5 million Time Square town centre regeneration project.

Up to 1,200 employees based at offices at New Town House and Quattro, The Base, Rylands Street, Museum Street and Contact Warrington will begin moving to the new facility from February.

As well as public areas, there will be meeting rooms, breakout areas and a conference suite.

Workers will have kitchen break out spaces on every floor while showers, changing room facilities, lockers and drying rooms have been included in the design.

Office space will be open plan with 800 workstations and a 7:10 ratio of desks to employees.

Most services are likely to be allocated zones to ensure individuals are located near to colleagues and the materials needed.

Gareth Hopkins, the council’s assistant director for customer and business transformation, delivered an update to the organisational improvement and development policy committee at the Town Hall on Tuesday.

He admitted there had been fears over ‘hot desking’ but said proposals have been ‘honed down’ to ensure most services have specific zones.

He also said 800 desks are ample to accommodate up to 1,200 members of staff, taking into account part-time working patterns, people on leave and staff working away from their desk.

“Most services are currently allocated zones – we have actually done quite a bit of work on this in the last couple of months,” he said.

Mr Hopkins told councillors that the site has the ‘ability’ to hold some council meetings.

During the meeting, it was also confirmed New Town House and Quattro in the town centre is likely to be demolished and ‘razed to the ground’ once staff move out, as part of plans to regenerate the land.

In May, the cabinet approved early proposals to demolish the building.

At the time, residents were told bulldozing the site and turning it into housing will ‘reduce the risk’ of needing to build on green spaces in the borough.