THE first staff have started moving into the new county council/police offices at Landmark House on the edge of Ipswich.

A total of 800 staff between the two bodies will be based in Landmark House which has been empty since it was built for hi-tech company Agilent more than ten years ago.

It was never occupied by Agilent – the company pulled out of Ipswich before it was even completed – and it has been empty until it was bought and converted by the two authorities.

The cost of the purchase and conversion remains commercially confidential – but at the time the county agreed to the deal in 2010, the cost of the purchase and conversion of the building was estimated at between �11million and �14m. The first staff moved in to Landmark House earlier this month – it is being occupied from the top of the building down – and the process is expected to take until the end of September to be completed.

A spokeswoman for the Suffolk Police Authority, which is co-ordinating the move, said it was not a simple operation. She said: “It is not just a case of moving from one building to another. We are also having to bring teams together.

“It is quite a complex logistical exercise.”

Landmark House will allow the county to move staff from the social services offices in Whitehouse Road, its offices in Tower Street, Kerrison at Eye, and Belstead House.

They will be sold or their leases terminated.

Police staff will be moved from the station at Elm Street in the town centre and from other offices around the area – although the front office and some accommodation will be kept at Elm Street until another town centre site for the police is found.