UP TO 500 council workers are to move into new offices next to Endeavour House, the Star can reveal today.Suffolk County Council has bought the former Eastern Electricity offices in Constantine House, just across the road from its new headquarters.

UP TO 500 council workers are to move into new offices next to Endeavour House, the Star can reveal today.

Suffolk County Council has bought the former Eastern Electricity offices in Constantine House, just across the road from its new headquarters.

The building will be the home for the new service company set up by the county, Mid Suffolk Council, and BT to provide customer services and support to staff.

"There will be about 500 people working there," said county council executive member Ray Nowak.

"But you have to remember it isn't just a call centre which a lot of people seem to think. It will also be providing support services, like human resources, personnel, and computer services to both ourselves and Mid Suffolk council.

"It's a big operation in its own right - but by being there the people can share facilities with us here, like the staff restaurant, that sort of thing."

And the county council has more plans to move its staff to central locations.

About 650 staff working on Ipswich locality projects should be moved to a central office within the next two years.

"At present we are dotted all over Ipswich and beyond in a variety of different buildings that really are not ideal," said Mr Nowak.

"We haven't identified new offices yet - but we are actively looking for somewhere to bring all our staff together," he added.

He was confident that the council would not lose money from such a move.

"We have buildings all over the place that we would be able to dispose of," he said.

"Buildings like Tower Street in Ipswich. It's a nice building that should get a good price - but it's not very practical for our uses," he said.

"We have many other buildings like that and it would be much better and more efficient to move everyone into the same location."

As well as 650 staff working in departments like social services and child protection serving the Ipswich area, the office would also be a base for mobile staff - totalling about 250.

With about 1,000 working at Endeavour House, 500 in the new support and information centre, 650 at the new locality office and 250 working in the field, the county council has about 2,400 people working in the Ipswich area - not including the thousands working at schools in the area.

The purchase will also help consolidate the Ipswich Village area as the town's "municipal district."

As well as the county council buildings, it will also be home to Ipswich borough council which is to move to a new building on Russell Road, the new Crown Court, and possibly a new main police station for the town.

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