A pair of historic listed buildings in the heart of Colchester's town centre could be sold off.

Estate experts at Colchester Council are considering what to do with its Trinity Street buildings, which are currently being used as an arts forum and for the Healthy Colchester partnership.

Options for the Grade II and Grade II* buildings are being drawn up and are expected to form the basis of a report to go before the council's cabinet in February 2001.

Steve Clarke, head of estates and economic management, today confirmed one of the options was to sell the Georgian buildings.

He said: "We have been considering what to do with the site for some time. People are very enthusiastic about arts projects for the town but at the moment a site in Queen Street is favoured because of regeneration plans in that part of town.

"That leaves us with a problem in terms of how we dispose of the buildings in Trinity Street. Because they are both listed, we would need to make sure they are given the best possible future, and for a while now they have been soldiering on in temporary use."

He said it was unlikely the council could find another use for them other than a base for the arts.

Theresa Higgins, chairman of the employment, economic development, leisure and tourism policy panel, said while Colchester should be proud of its historic buildings, they should not stop the town moving forward.

She said buildings like those in Trinity Street cost a lot to maintain, and that a new building for the arts was possibly the better option because it could have disabled access built in.

Trinity Street Galleries opened in 1990 and is run by artists.

By Laurence Cawley

Reporter's e-mail: laurence_cawley@thisisessex.co.uk

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.