ESSENTIAL maintenance works and upgrades are set to be made at Bridgend County Borough Council’s civic offices, based in Angel Street in Bridgend, over the coming months.
The works will focus on the council’s chamber and committee rooms in order to make sure they are safe, fit for purpose, and suitable for modern ways of working.
It is the first time the chamber has been updated since the civic offices were first opened in 1986.
A council spokesman said: “We will be carrying out some essential maintenance works over the next few weeks to ensure the council chamber and committee rooms remain safe to use, fit for purpose, and suitable for supporting modern ways of working.
“As they have not been updated since the civic offices opened in 1986 we will also be installing new technology that will improve the visual and audio quality of meetings while supporting enhanced electronic voting, live streaming of meetings, hybrid working, and more.
“To minimise disruption the work, which is being funded using existing budgets for building maintenance, will be carried out in phases and is expected to take up to 14 weeks to complete.”
The plans were discussed by the chief executive of Bridgend County Borough Council Jake Morgan at a full council meeting held on June 24.
Addressing the meeting he said the refurbishments would mean the council chamber would be closed for several months with at least one council meeting expected to be held online.
However he also added that it would put them in a much better place in terms of voting and counting votes as well as for people functioning both in the chamber and remotely.
He said: “It’s a huge job putting in all the technology but it will give us electronic voting. That is a system that works.
“It will give us some bread and butter basics like not having leaking windows, leaking rooves, and air conditioning.”
The work is expected to be completed by October.
