THE Civic Suite in the Town Hall will be under intense scrutiny over the next year as part of a major report.

At the Policy and Resources meeting last Monday, councillors had concerns about plans put forward to make the Civic Suite a much more profitable building.

One controversial idea from the action plan was to consider increasing the Civic Suite hire charges to be more in line with other providers.

Councillor Ron Passingham said: "At the moment we are not attracting enough customers. A higher price will not be welcome with them."

The suite is mainly used for commercial use by the public for wedding receptions, birthday parties and conference facilities at the weekends as well as for holding meetings for the council.

Author of the town hall report Jane Smith said: "We will be looking at all of the items in the action plan in the next year and after that we have the next five years to look at how to best manage the town hall.

"Increasing the hire charges is just one of many action points which we will be considering over the next year."