UPDATED – A council office building was closed until further notice this afternoon (Thursday 27 February) after two staff collapsed.
Brighton and Hove City Council called in a specialist contractor to carry out a series of tests while paramedics treated the two staff.
The building, Bartholomew House, also known as Barts House, is opposite Brighton Town Hall and houses the council’s customer services centre.
The council sent an “urgent safety message” to staff which said: “We’ve been made aware that two individuals working in close proximity at Barts house have collapsed this afternoon for reasons currently unknown.
“As a safety precaution, we have closed Barts House.
“Ambulance services have attended and provided the necessary support to these individuals.
“Facilities and security colleagues are currently in the process of assisting colleagues to collect their belongings and leave the building for the rest of the day as a precaution until the cause can be ascertained.
“A specialist contractor will be on site at 5pm today to carry out various tests to assist in the process of ascertaining what the cause might be alongside any information received back from the ambulance service.
“We fully acknowledge the impact to building users by temporarily closing Barts House.
“However, our priority is keeping everyone safe, so thank you for your patience and understanding.
“Service teams based at Barts House are advised to activate their business continuity plans if necessary and work remotely or from alternative council offices.
“Managers of staff based at Barts House please contact/text your team members to keep them updated.
“As soon as we have further updates, including when Barts will be reopened, this will be communicated.”
Tonight, the council’s chief executive Jess Gibbons said: “Two members of council staff working at Bartholomew House required medical attention today (Thursday 27 February).
“As a precaution, due to concerns that it may have been caused by an airborne issue, we took immediate steps to close the building while investigations were undertaken.
“Our specialist contractor has completed thorough air quality checks in the first-floor area. We have received confirmation that no issues were found, and the building is safe to use.
“The first floor will remain closed tomorrow to allow for a deep clean and provide additional reassurance and will reopen to staff on Monday 3 March.
“We will continue to explore what happened and caused the incident. The health and safety of our staff and visitors to our buildings is paramount.”
Drugs and alcohol test not but just an air check from the department ?
We investigate ourselves and find nothing wrong
Hope the staff members are okay & no one else will be affected. Thank you for your update.
I imagine that was all the staff actually in the premises at the time and chose to have another cheeky Greggs that put them over the edge.
I think the main health issue for council workers nowadays is caused by hard-working office staff having to read angry emails and social media comments.
Stay strong, people. The real world continues, away from the flat screens.
Probably the milk was off for the morning porridge that council office workers must have in work time before starting work.
Imagine being a grown adult and spending your life imagining scenarios of minor local government inefficiency – people eating some breakfast during work time! – to get annoyed about on social media.
They probably read the email about productivity and accountability,