Major problems at Angus Council offices in Forfar appear no closer to resolution after the authority revealed its intention to move staff to other accommodation.
The County Buildings in Market Street were shut down on Friday in the latest development of what has now become a prolonged search for electrical gremlins in the building.
Difficulties which initially affected email systems in February and led to an earlier weekend shutdown of the council’s website to allow for work to the electronic communications hub took a dramatic turn with reports of power points melting on walls and flames spotted in the building.
The council has yet to officially confirm those reports, but last Friday closed the door on the offices on health and safety grounds after what it described as an escalation of the County Building difficulties.
Work is understood to have continued over the weekend and the situation was the subject of a top-level meeting on Monday.
That night, a council spokesman confirmed that a decision has been taken to relocate staff.
There is no indication, at this stage, of how long the decant is due to last, but the authority has warned that the move is likely to lead to some service disruption.
“The planning and transport teams and some roads staff are in the process of moving to the council’s Orchardbank campus,” said a spokesperson.
“The reception area for planning applications will be at Angus House and will be in operation within a few days. There will be some disruption to the affected services as staff move offices and the council apologises for any inconvenience this causes.
“Any telephone calls for the affected services should be directed to the council’s ACCESS line, 0845 2777 778.”