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‘The concept of the street goes to the heart of the Civic Centre’s collaborative ideal’
between the two fingers of offices, vastly improving the quality of the office space where natural daylight for staff was a part of the brief. The lanterns provide stack displacement ventilation, expelling warm air that has risen to the top of the structure and drawing in cool air from the office façades. This can be con- trolled by the opening and closing of windows. (In tempera- ture extremes the building can be warmed through heating under the slate floor and a displacement ventilation system, or cooled by the use of mechanical ventilation.) The concept of the street goes to the heart of the Civic
Centre’s collaborative ideals. The idea that random interac- tions in a shared space can be creative may be a cliché of com- mercial workplace design but, dare one say it, in the public sector this type of collaborative working between separate organisations seems quite radical. Iain Macpherson, business manager, West Lothian &
Borders Police, explains how a drug bust in a local flat may have implications beyond the arrest of the dealer and the seizure of drugs. What if the trade were supporting children who were now left alone? What if the police had to break a door down and the Council had to arrange for it to be re-secured? With children’s services, the police and the council co-located in the same site, an operation can be better co -ordinated before it takes place to take account of the needs of family members affected by law enforcement or protection operations. “Now they are in the same building, they can have conversa- tions together more freely,” says Macpherson. Although this
might ideally have been the case all along, such efficient working was sometimes hampered by concerns about data sharing and institutional suspicion. (Some of this still remains as the police department on the ground floor have instinctively protected themselves by erecting a wall of plants between themselves and the street rather than allowing free interchange.) Other examples of increased operational efficiency abound.
For example, before the police and the courts were in the same building, officers set to be witnesses on Friday would have to take a day out of their schedule to travel to the court and would not be able to work at weekends. Now they only need an hour’s notice to get back to the trial from anywhere within the West Lothian area, and when the area gets rowdy of a Saturday night there are more cops around to handle it. Meanwhile, with the police and the courts having access to
cells within the building, arrestees can be kept in custody in the holding cells before the next day’s court appearance without being trundled to and from the court in costly Serco vans accompanied by police officers. Indeed, overall, the time from police arrest to court has been reduced from 172 days to 62 days. “It’s very effective to be able to develop good relationships
with the police,” says David Fyfe, sheriff clerk. “It’s much better to put faces to names.” More innovation is coming out of joint working, Fyfe says,
adding that the police, the courts and the procurator fiscal are together working toward greater efficiencies in the arrest war-
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