Councillors back renewed bid to sell offices (From Thisisdorset)

Councillors back renewed bid to sell offices

5:23pm Tuesday 11th December 2012 in Latest

WEST Dorset District Council will push ahead with plans to sell its headquarters, despite failing to attract the original asking price.
After a marketing exercise earlier this year the council received a number of bids for its Stratton House campus but its executive committee was told none of these had met the amount the authority had initially hoped to receive for the site.
With the move to new offices in Charles Street due to be completed by the end of January, the committee was presented with a number of options for the future of Stratton House.
These included removing the site from the market and the council developing it or carrying out the work with a development partner with a view to attaining a higher value on the site.
Members instead opted to support an option that will see the site remarketed immediately in the hope of achieving a better price for the offices in their current state and to proceed with selling the premises.
Members were told that even if the lowest bid the council had received to date was accepted, savings achieved in the building of the new offices meant the relocation would still achieve a saving to the authority of over £200,000 a year.
Property and facilities manager Rosie Darkin told the meeting: “We are still on track to make savings in excess of £200,000 a year from the move to new offices.”
Council leader Robert Gould added: “The important thing is the business case for moving to new offices has been fulfilled.
“I think that's a really great outcome for this project and it's marvellous to think we are now, after what has been quite a long period of time, on the verge of fulfilling this project and moving on.”