Footfall Fears over County Hall Closure

Shock news in Saturday’s Daily Post revealed that Denbighshire county council is to close county hall permanently in 2026 or 2027, move its headquarters to Y Rhyl and reopen the former Rhos Street school premises as its shrunken Rhuthun/Ruthin office base. 

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The closure is expected to be completed in 2026 or early 2027. The council said that the changes were a result of more and more staff now able to work from home. That trend had ‘accelerated at the coronavirus pandemic and has continued’. It meant that the council no longer needed all its offices and therefore county hall was earmarked for closure. It would result in ‘considerable savings in building, running and maintenance costs’. 

Few cars parked at county hall these days. Little wonder it will shut

The Daily Post article did not state what would happen to county hall other than it would be ‘redeveloped subject to planning permission’.

Rear of the former Rhos Street school: it looks like the site will be converted to office accommodation for the county council

Meanwhile, staff working in county hall will be able to continue to attend face-to-face meetings and appointments at what will be a converted Rhos Street school building. This, the council said, ‘offered sufficient space for the amount of employees now needing traditional office accommodation in Rhuthun’. The council added that this was ‘a building of appropriate size’. Additional worker meeting spaces would be available at Rhuthun library (when open!) and The Old Courthouse. The library would become the replacement one-stop-shop.

Bro Rhuthun the Rhuthun/Ruthin Blog comments:

Dinbych had its hospital. Wrecsam its coal industry. Trefynnon/Holywell and Y Fflint Courtauld’s. All have disappeared. Rhuthun’s major employer is local government administration. That, too, now appears under threat. While we are pleased that the empty Rhos Street school will see new life, the closure of county hall is a significant blow for the town’s economy. Footfall will suffer greatly. The other concern is the loss of ‘county town’ status regained in 1996. After 30 years, Denbighshire’s county town will now pass to Y Rhyl. Y Rhyl gets the cream once again. 

It’s strange that this hasn’t been picked up yet on social media.