STAFF working for Tavistock Town Council are due to move into temporary accommodation next week as contractors start refurbishment work on the council building in Drake Road.
The office staff will be using council-owned accommodation above 13 Duke Street while the work is being carried out ? a move that will cost around £600 incurred through the professional moving of computers, telephones and essential equipment. Remaining files and equipment will be sealed against dust and remain in Drake Road.
Members of the council?s properties committee last week agreed that the temporary move would be the best option, while work is carried out to install a fire escape, disabled access from the car park and repair the roof and cupola.
Town clerk Roger Howard said the register office staff could continue to use the building as normal as they are housed downstairs, but council staff would find it ?impossible? to work while the upgrade takes place.
?It?s going to be like a building site upstairs,? he said.
The temporary move to Duke Street is likely to last around three to four months ? the massive £260,000 upgrade of the Drake Road building, made necessary to comply with new disability access laws, should be finished in November.
In the meantime, councillors have been asked to consider whether meetings should be held in the Rundle Room at the town hall, or in the hall itself, when access to the council chamber is impossible.
Mayor of Tavistock Cllr Norma Woodcock said: ?There are advantages and disadvantages in both of them. In one, you can?t hear, and in one, you can?t see ? it?s difficult to do both in either but we do need a fall-back decision.?
The temporary move to Duke Street is due to take place on August 4.