OFFICES filled by social services staff in Newtown have been closed due to a broken boiler.

And it seems unlikely that they will return to the building as staff had been scheduled to move out and the office closed.

Sources had told the Local Democracy Service that staff and clients had been forced to leave Robert Owen House in Newtown on Tuesday as the boiler had broken.

The source said the building was in a state of disrepair and staff disliked working there because of “Sick Building Syndrome” – blamed on a hydrotherapy pool there which had been filled in years ago.

Sick Building Syndrome is when people working in a building are often ill with no explanation, but get better when away from the building.

Chairman of the health and care scrutiny committee, Cllr Gwilym Williams, (Conservative – Disserth and Trecoed) asked social services chiefs at a committee meeting on Thursday, June 27, why Robert Owen House had been closed?

Head of adult services, Michael Gray, said: “The hot water heating system had stopped working on Tuesday.

“An engineer was called and we were told it was beyond repair due to its age.

“Without hot water it raises the risk of contamination and the spread of diseases so as a service, we, supported our service users to go home.

“All staff an service users have been relocated to alternative day bases (offices) as of Wednesday and carer have been notified of the situation.

“I can assure the committee we have continuity of care in place.”

Head of social services commissioning, Dylan Owen, added; “There was also a long standing plan for us to move away from Robert Owen House.

“Social Services as were the Health Board had been planning to do this, we’re being pushed to do so now but we were intending to leave in the coming months anyway.

“It’s meant to be a constructive move to integrate teams”

Cllr Williams asked if the boiler would be repaired?

Mr Owen replied: “It’s to be considered, but some of the staff we had there have already moved.

“We are proactively archiving the confidential data that was being held there.”