DISTRICT council buildings could be sold off and staff moved elsewhere, before a final decision is made on a multi-million pound new office building.

On Tuesday the council's executive committee is being asked to approve disposing of Rockcliffe, in Church Street, Temeside House in Tenbury, and the Willows newsagents shop in Avenue Road, which all currently have tenants, and implementing a plan for the relocation of staff in Highlea to other council buildings as soon as possible.

Property working party member Serena Croad said: "All the money from the sale of any property isn't just to build a new office block, but to run a capital fund for other projects.

"We all agree the office accommodation isn't totally acceptable but we don't need to look at building something new until we know what our future is in local government. We can review it, and know we've got to sell some properties anyway, but building a new one doesn't have to be the be all and end all," she said.

As a Conservative councillor, she supports the sale of Highlea, and staff being relocated, and said Rockcliffe should be sold because it is non-operational. However, she said her Tenbury colleagues did not back the idea of Temeside House being sold off, as they feared the money would not be put back into Tenbury.

Originally the new headquarters were set to be based in an extension and refurbishment to Brunel House in Portland Road, but the latest report issued by the council's property working party cites problems with design limitations.

A new plan under consideration is to demolish Brunel House and build a new office block on that site.

The former Treasurers site in Albert Road North is another possible location for the new headquarters. The report says it is already in the council's ownership, does not suffer from the same design limitations as the Brunel House site and would be cheaper to develop.

Although the local plan identifies the Treasurer's site for affordable housing near the town centre, the working party believes this could be met through the possible conversion of Whitbourne Lodge, Milbourne Lodge and/or Portland House.