DESK police will soon be patrolling the council’s new headquarters when staff leave at the end of the day.

There is a clear desk policy at Westgate and anyone who does not stick to the rules will find their offending items have been confiscated when they arrive the next morning.

The five floor £11m building has just 697 desks for the 800 people set to work there, so many employees will have to treat work spaces like time shares.

Those given the task of checking the offices are spick and span will collect anything deemed out of place and store it until the culprits ask for it back. Council head of communications Bob Williams believes what happens at Westgate is not of interest to the public.

He said: “The more I speak to colleagues who work at Westgate, the more positive the comments I'm picking up, both about the building and about working there. As I've stated before, where colleagues have issues they are encouraged to discuss them.

“I see no value therefore discussing them through the pages of the Chronicle. In fact I wouldn't expect the Chronicle to share its day to day working practices with its readers, as they probably wouldn't be interested, and I think the same goes for ours.”

Westgate will house the development, environment, finance and property departments as well as the council’s executive directors.