TWO district council departments - finance and planning & environment - are to be united in a single office complex in Kidderminster.

Staff at the current planning & environment HQ at Land Oak House in Chester Road, and the finance department in Vicar Street, will come together later this year at the former Tomkinson Carpets offices in Duke Place.

Staff from the council's New Street, Stourport, offices will also transfer to the new location.

It is an "interim" option while councillors and officers continue to investigate the best and most cost-effective way to bring just under 400 office-based council staff onto a single site.

Andrew Dickens, the district's commercial services chief, said a five-to-seven year lease had been taken up on the offices in Duke Place.

"The offices there are more suitable, with dedicated parking and easy access, than the existing premises staff are based in. They will provide a better working environment for staff from those departments.

"Council officers and councillors will then use the next year or so to decide the best location and likely costs of having a single site, with a view to including the plans in the budget for the financial year 2005-6.

"That may seem a long way off but there is a lot of work to do. Councillors support the idea of taking a step back and looking at the "single site" issue afresh, more logically and strategically."

The merits and search for a "single site" has been batted to and fro for the past 20 years or so.

Currently office-based district council staff are based at a range of sites around Kidderminster and Stourport.

The future of Land Oak House is uncertain, although councillors are expected to decide whether, and how, to dispose of it later this year.

The leased premises in Vicar Street will revert to the owner.