Fermanagh and Omagh District Council (FODC) is to open two new ‘Connect Centres’ in addition to spending £850,000 on refurbishing the offices and meeting space in Enniskillen Townhall and The Grange in Omagh.

County Buildings on Enniskillen’s East Bridge Street has recently been acquired by the Council. From Autumn 2018, it will serve as a Connect Centre – open from 8.30am-6pm, with no lunchtime closure – where members of the public will go to deal with Council-related business such as registering births, deaths and marriages; looking at planning applications and paying for licences or new bins. 
Its Omagh counterpart will be situated in the former Public Services Centre on Omagh’s High Street.
Enniskillen Townhall and The Grange will only be used for council meetings and other administrative and civic functions such as marriage ceremonies.
The 2018-19 capital plan includes £200,000 for Enniskillen Townhall and £650,000 for The Grange.
An FODC spokesman explained that the Connect Centres will help the Council implement its customer service strategy, its accommodation review and aspects of its ICT strategy.
He told The Impartial Reporter: “Project Citizen seeks to ensure a Council-wide customer focus, placing the citizen at the centre of what the Council does, through introducing ways to improve and increase customer choice about when and where they access services.”
All business transactions and switchboard will transfer to the new Connect Centres, at which point the Townhall and the Grange will “essentially accommodate the administrative and civic functions of the Council, which will include additional meeting facilities for members to support the effective representation and democratic work,” the spokesman said.
The money will be spent on “improving accessibility, developing the additional meeting facilities required for members and to renovate and refurbish some office accommodation, addressing current deficiencies so that it is fit for purpose now and into the future,” he outlined.
A recent report to FODC’s Policy and Resources Committee said that each Connect Centre will be staffed by two Customer Services Advisors supported by administrative support from other services areas, located in the buildings. 
Councillors received an update on Project Citizen during a recent P&R committee meeting. 
“The theory is, we want to make it as easy as possible to do business with the Council,” said the Director for Corporate Services and Governance, Celine McCartan.
UUP Councillor Alex Baird queried if the entire registration of births, deaths and marriages will take place at the new Connect Centre and Director for Corporate Services and Governance Ms. Celine McCartan said that, due to accessibility issues at Enniskillen Townhall, “the proposal is that we would relocate the registration office in its entirety to County Buildings. The only exception to that is civil ceremonies which would take place back up in the Townhall.”