Plans to move staff out of the Dorchester Town Council's North Square offices have been postponed – possibly for the long-term.

The council planned to move into purpose-built new offices at the rear of the Corn Exchange, and to then sell its North Square headquarters for housing.

Instead, Dorchester Arts will now occupy the new office space, potentially sharing with partner organisations, while the town council staff will stay in North Square.

The decision has been criticised by former town councillor Tony Lyall, who has just resigned after falling out with the Liberal Democrat ruling group.

Mr Lyall is critical of the cost to council taxpayers of building the new offices – only for the town council to decide, as he describes it, "at the last minute," not to use them. He claims they miscalculated the space they needed.

Dorchester Town Council's Policy Committee chair at the time, Cllr Susie Hosford, has defended the decision, describing the change of heart as "temporary".

She said that when it was further investigated, the conversion of the North Square building to housing turned out to be unrealistic.

"We were disappointed when we found out that it would not be possible to repurpose it for affordable housing, but it's actually turned out to be really positive because has proved to be a really valuable community asset which has enabled us to support a variety of partner organisations," said Cllr Hosford.

"When the development of new offices at the back of the Municipal Buildings was originally planned, it was hoped that the council's office accommodation in North Square could be developed for affordable housing, meeting one of the key priorities of the council's current Corporate Plan. 

"More detailed surveys of the building subsequently concluded that it would not be possible to convert it into units of accommodation that met national standards for affordable housing.

"During the period between the decision to develop new offices and their eventual completion, it became apparent that the additional space provided by our North Square building provided a valuable opportunity to support partner organisations who needed temporary office space and we were able to help Dorchester Arts, Dorset Museum and the Shire Hall in this way. 

"Following the Covid pandemic, many of the town's valued community groups are experiencing severe economic hardship with many grants and funding streams under review or being withdrawn completely. 

"The council realised that North Square has the potential to play a vital part in providing much needed space for some of these groups to operate. 

"Most recently, part of the building has been used as a costume and props hub for the community play's highly successful production Spinning the Moon and we are presently in discussion with another community organisation who are in need of some temporary space.

"The council has made the decision to retain this community asset in the short term so that the new council can review the future of the building when a new Corporate Plan is drawn up following next year's election.

"In the meantime, this also allows Dorchester Arts the capacity to offer space to partner Arts organisations within the new offices."

Pic – Existing Dorchester Town Council North Square offices

Pic – New offices built to the rear of the Corn Exchange – not to be used by the town council, but by Dorchester Arts.