New £53m West Lothian Civic Centre is open

CONSTRUCTION work is now complete on West Lothian’s new civic centre. And to mark the end of the building phase of the £53 million building, representatives from the organisations which will use the building, attended the official ‘topping out’ to mark the completion of the building stage.

By late autumn when the Civic Centre is fully operational it will house around 1000 staff and offices divisional police headquarters; Sheriff and Justice of the Peace court complex; council headquarters; the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service; the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration Service; Lothian and Borders Fire and Rescue Service and West Lothian Community Health and Care Partnership.

The police will be the first to move into the civic centre and their new offices will be open to the public at 7am on Thursday, July 23.

Leader of West Lothian Council, Peter Johnston, said: “It has taken a tremendous amount of commitment and work to bring the vision of true joined up partnership working to fruition.

“The West Lothian Civic Centre is leading the way in delivering both effective and efficient public services.

“With the current unstable financial situation the civic centre makes perfect sense in terms of sharing resources, creating efficiencies and providing the best value possible for our citizens.”

Lothian and Borders Police, Chief Superintendent Ronnie Liddle, said he is pleased that new opportunities will be made available by the move.

He said: “This is a really exciting time for West Lothian Division and, indeed, Lothian and Borders Police.

“The opportunities we will have, in terms of working really closely with our partners, are huge.

“I expect my team to be building professional relationships and developing a joined up approach with people from health, social work, education, housing and environmental services, to name but a few.

“This should directly impact upon those people who use our service, with a view to providing the very best response to individuals and the communities in West Lothian.”

Eleanor Emberson, chief executive, Scottish Court Service, added: “Better joint working across the justice system will give a better service to the local community.“

And West Lothian Council’s Chief Executive Alex Linkston, said: “Partners have worked together over the last three years to identify opportunities, build relationships and create an environment to maximise synergies.

“Such as criminal justice, community safety and emergency planning.

“Partners will continue to build on this innovative work to improve service provision.”