Council bosses have been disappointed by the response from residents to multi-million pound plans to build new headquarters in South Woodham Ferrers.

However they say they are set to go ahead with the plans which, while adding £4.50 to council tax bills, will mean better and more accessible facilities for people living in the town.

The deadline for residents to send in consultation forms to the town council was delayed from November 30 until last Monday - but only 44 people returned completed forms.

Cliff Vanner, chairman of the project sub committee, said: "We were hoping for more responses but we have never done anything like this before and it is something we will do again."

Of those that replied to the question about whether they would be happy paying extra council tax to fund the £1.05million move, 24 said no, 13 said yes, and seven asked for more information.

However Mr Vanner said: "While it would be naive of us to assume that everybody else was in favour of it, we are elected as representatives to make a decision. The basic decision to go ahead with the project was discussed before and we believe it will benefit the community as a whole."

The plan is to move to purpose built new headquarters at the council-owned Champions Manor Hall, Hullbridge Road, because the existing first floor headquarters in Reeves Way are inaccessible to wheelchairs and difficult to get to for people with pushchairs.

The town council already has £650,000 and needs to get a loan of £400,000 to meet the total costs of refurbishing the new place - but savings of £26,000 a year will be made in rent currently paid on the Reeves Way offices.

Demolition work on the old Elmwood School buildings is due to go ahead in January or February and then work on the new facility should start within the next 12 months.

If everything goes according to plan, the town will have new community facilities by mid 2003.

Published Wednesday December 19, 2001