A COUNCIL plans to build and move into brand new offices within four years despite spending £850,000 this year on its current site.

North Dorset District Council is setting up a working party to oversee the project amid claims its current buildings at Nordon in Salisbury Road, Blandford, are inadequate.

Staff at the site have long complained about extremes of temperature, overcrowding or have been housed in portable buildings.

The council resolved in 1999 not to go ahead with a major refurbishment and rebuild on its current site. Instead they decided on work to ensure the council met legal obligations, to improve conditions and upgrade ICT facilities. The main reception area was also moved. The work has cost £700,000 plus fees of £150,000.

Chief executive Alan Greaves has revealed that the so-called "minimum option" has a limited time span. He said: "The basis on which the works were proposed was a life of three to four years. Thereafter it is highly likely that the council will incur considerable further expenditure.

"The assumption was that some alternative solution would be sought in that timescale. The only real option for the council is to plan for a move from Nordon.

"We need to begin to plan now for this and the main purpose of this report is to draw this to the attention of the committee and recommend an approach to undertaking the work.

"The council must begin to plan in the next few months for a move on the basis of a requirement in four years time."

Mr Greaves added: "The cost of providing a new building for whatever scale of operations will be significant: we have to seek ways of reducing this to meet the council's means."

The matter was being discussed by the council's Corporate Services Policy Panel on Thursday November 29.