Fury as lights left blazing in new council office block

COUNCIL bosses are being asked to switch on to the idea of switching off after lights at their multi-million pound new HQ were left on around the clock.

Several floors of the new Riverside House complex, off Main Street, have remained illuminated around the clock, according to furious council tax payers who are urging the authority to save energy—and save money.

Suggestions that the lights are on with nobody home came as the council—which has signed a 35-year lease worth £3 million-a-year with regeneration group Evans—tightens its belt amid government cuts.

Campaigner Don Buxton, of Wickersley, fumed: “The borough council seem to be using my taxes to illuminate their new buildings at a time when it benefits absolutely no-one.”

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As well as interior lighting on several floors, atmospheric blue lighting at the end of each storey of the new building also remains illuminated throughout the night at Riverside House, critics claim.

Mr Buxton added: “It may be the case that contractors are in there and that they are leaving the lights on in the offices but I suspect the blue lights are permanent.

“At the moment driving past Rotherham town centre the council’s new buildings look like a Las Vegas skyline and it must be costing us all.”

Former anti-wind farm campaigner Peter Hubbard, of Ulley, said: “It’s inexcusable.

“This from an authority which is supposedly doing all it can to meet its renewable energy targets and is willing to pass giant wind turbines on the borough’s most picturesque countryside just beggars belief.”

A spokeswoman for the borough council pointed out that, despite about 700 staff now working in Riverside House, interior work is still being carried out within the building.

She added: “The authority now occupies one wing of the building with the majority of the lights in that section being under time clock and motion sensor control, which is required to cover the core office working hours of 7am until 7pm.

“However, some lighting controls have yet to be commissioned and on occasion the contractor has left the lights on in sections of the building where fitting-out work is still taking place.

“Once the whole building is finally commissioned from the contractor the aesthetic blue lighting will only be on until 11pm and then for a short time on dark mornings.”

Riverside House’s carbon footprint will be minimised by using water from under the building for heating.

NEW COUNCIL HQ IN £12.9m ‘ICON’ FURY . . See this week's Advertiser.