Medway: Council to get £20 million to deal with RAAC
The authority is expected to borrow the cash to deal with the council HQ
Medway Council could borrow £20million in a bid to deal with crumbling concrete at its headquarters.
A report will provide a number of options to members about what to do with the authority’s HQ, which has been largely closed due to RAAC being discovered.
It will be discussed at a cabinet meeting on 13 February.
Parts of Gun Wharf were found to have RAAC in October.
The site, in Chatham, has been largely closed since the discovery.
It left it with limited available space, forcing many council staff to work remotely.
The option recommended by officers is to borrow £20 million to deal with the problems and to renovate the building.
It is hoped the borrowed cash will help bring it up to date and make improvements that will help it service the Towns for another 40 years.
Among the alternatives options were that Gun Wharf be sold off and a new council headquarters found, but the report warned this was not a cost-effective choice.
The report also says officers looked into the viability of building or leasing a new main office for the council and even doing nothing, continuing to operate with reduced capacity at the current site.
However, these were all dismissed as being economically unsound.
Based on current interest rates of 6.5%, the £20 million borrowed would add almost £1.5million to the authority’s annual bills for the next 40 years.
This would make the total cost including interest just over £56.5million.
Even if agreed next week, work to get Gun Wharf back into operation is expected to take several years.