Council ups and moves

MOVING ON OUT: Gisborne District Council staff have now all moved out of the Fitzherbert Street council building. Chief building specialist Ian Petty, senior customer services Deane Takao and IT service desk project support Jesse Whitehead are pictured taking some of the last items out of the building yesterday morning. Picture by Paul Rickard

STAFF have finished moving as Gisborne District Council gears up to demolish its existing Fitzherbert Street administration centre.

In the lead-up to the demolition, which the council says will not start before July, staff have moved in three stages — firstly to level three of the Emerald Hotel building (May 7-8), to level two of the same building (the following weekend) then (last week) to the former BNZ building in Gladstone Road.

The council says that is “the key move” as it involves the front-facing customer services location, which started operating from its new site today.

“Operating hours will remain the same, services will remain the same, we’ll just be in a different building,” says council chief executive Judy Campbell.

“Between 70 and 100 people also visit our customer service desk every day so the increased amount of foot traffic is sure to have some positive effect on nearby business.”

Although now in the main street, the customer services is still easily accessible with some changes made to parking in the river-end block to make it easier for people going to make payments or seek information.