Council Unsure What Caused Flood that forced closure of Voreda House as Staff advised to relocate to Carlisle office

Early this morning a leak was discovered that has impacted the councils ability to permit access for customers and staff at Voreda House.

The council has said that It is not known at this point what contributed to this leak and members of the councils Corporate Assets team are working with council maintenance teams to establish the cause.

The first floor of Voreda House has suffered a large amount of flooding. This extends across all areas and teams have been working this morning to remove water and lift carpet tiles throughout the effected areas of the building.

There has been damage to some of the surface finishes on walls in the building as a result of the flooding.

The blinds have been closed on the buildings first floor as council teams assess the damage caused by the flooding.

On the ground floor level of Voreda House there was limited flooding to some back-office areas affecting some flooring and surface finishes. However, on the ground floor the majority of rooms were unaffected, including the reception area, customer suites and The Patterdale meeting room.

The councils assistant director of Corporate assets said “Our priority in the coming days will be to enable staff and customers to return to Voreda House and we are working hard to ensure that the unaffected accommodation areas on the ground floor and on the second floor are made available for the return of some designated staff as quickly as possible”.

“Assessment of those services requiring an onsite presence in Voreda House is underway and we will liaise with managers to confirm the allocation of space on the second floor. We ask that all other Voreda House based staff consider working from home for the time being”.

Council staff requiring access to an office location have been advised to consider temporarily relocating to the councils Parkhouse office in Carlisle, where a large number of Westmorland and Furness staff are already based.

How long these changes are required will be known in the coming days as the council establish the full extent of work required to address the impacts of the flood and put in place a plan to restore full access to Voreda House.