Newport City Council’s, Newport Information Station, supports the City’s residents by providing information about housing and council tax benefits, business rates, social services, child protection, access to supported employment, business rates and blue badges.
Requirements
The Council had a requirement to relocate council services from Newport’s Information Station to the city’s central library and museum.
There would be a six gap between exiting the previous building on Queensway, while fit-out work was being completed at the central library and museum, so they needed a storage solution for all of the furniture, including desks, a storage wall, meeting room furniture, lockers, chairs and soft seating.
Solution
At the initial pre-planning meeting, the relocation was planned with the appropriate methodologies, and formal lines of communication were established.
The project involved removing a large volume of furniture from the Old Station building, which posed a challenge for the crew as there was a bus lane directly outside the building restricting our vehicle access.
To overcome this we used smaller vehicles which could fit between bollards and park closer to the main exit of the building.
We were aware that the Council were open to exploring any cost-saving initiatives we could offer, so to reduce the amount of storage required and therefore the cost, we deployed Furniture Fitters to dismantle all 100 desks and storage wall units.
We deployed a Move Manager to coordinate the work and oversee the compilation of an inventory of the furniture removed, detailing its condition and storage location within our Cardiff warehouse. Upon completion, the customer signed off the inventory and was provided with an electronic copy.
After 6 months in storage, all the furniture was delivered to the newly refurbished Central Museum and Library.
To avoid spoiling the new space we installed hardboard to protect floors and correx to protect walls and lifts.
Desks and storage wall units were reassembled, and the furniture was placed as directed by plans and drawings supplied by the Council’s staff.
Summary
Careful planning ensured that the project was delivered successfully, within the timeframes stipulated, and with not a single piece of furniture being damaged.