A COUNCIL is claiming a controversial move to new offices will save £26,000 per year which can be spent on improving services.

Halstead Town Council held a meeting behind closed doors, excluding residents and the press, but later revealed the expected savings.

The council will be forced to leave their current home, Townsford Mill, by next March, after the site was sold.

The plan is to move into Queen’s Hall temporarily with more than £60,000 due to be spent on the conversion.

However because the council owns the hall and will not be required to pay rent it can save tens of thousands of pounds every year.

The proposed move to Queen’s Hall, on Chipping Hill, has come under criticism from residents, who fear the loss of a community facility.

And the council revealed £49,000 will be spent on building work, with an additional £12,000 to replace the heating system, taking the total project cost to £61,000.

But the council insisted the benefits outweighed any problems the move may cause and claimed this is the best option for a council attempting to make the most of taxpayers hard earned money.

The council expect to be based in Queen’s Hall for a minimum of two years, although it may be longer as they wait for the overdue community centre to be completed.

A report from the town council stated: “Once the council has moved into Queens Hall, the running costs for the Council will be reduced by about £26k per year. So in a little over two years, the costs of the building work will have been recouped.

“The project will largely be paid for using the capital reserves gained from the sale of the Chapel Street toilets.

“Once the reduced costs of running HTC from Queen’s Hall kick in after two years, the saved costs will be put back into the general revenue fund for the council.”

The move to the new community centre, on Butler Road, has been delayed due to contamination on the site.