Logging on first with e-office

7:16am Thursday 16th August 2007

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WHITCHURCH could soon be the first place in Hampshire to have its own e-office' as work on the innovative new work centre is set to start next week.

The office, which will provide work space for home workers and small businesses as well as an operating base for the town centre improvement manager, will be located at 1 Winchester Street in the heart of the town.

Business group Working 4 Whitchurch is setting it up as part of the town's two-year improvement plan, which gained grant funding worth £240,000 earlier this year.

The three work stations at the office can be rented by the half day and will have broadband internet access, data back-up facilities and other clerical services as well as a meeting room.

Phil Cooper from Working 4 Whitchurch said: "We're looking to support two kinds of customer -the small business or start-up that hasn't got the facilities, or those people who currently get on the train but whose company is happy for them to work from home.

"We also want people to use what is here in Whitchurch, and hopefully people using the office will end up spending money in the shops here too."

The grant funding will keep the office open for two years, by which time it should become self-sufficient.

The town's improvement manager, who will work two and a half days per week and oversee the various projects funded by grants from Hampshire County Council, Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council and the South East England Development Agency, is set to be appointed by the end of September.