Council leader defends former HQ demolition plan

Daniel Elmer says it has cost the council about £250,000 a year to maintain the site

Plans to demolish a former council headquarters so the site can be used for housing have been defended by the authority's leader.

People in Long Stratton had campaigned for the former South Norfolk District Council HQ to be used as a "community asset".

The council sold the building to its own development company instead, and its Conservative leader Daniel Elmer said the authority had "a legal and moral duty" to get the best price for the site.

The council's planning committee is expected to approve demolition of the building on Wednesday.

South Norfolk House – which is in Long Stratton – has sat empty since the council moved to a new building at the Broadland Business Park on the outskirts of Norwich in 2022.

The authority later agreed to sell the building to its own housing development company, Big Sky, for an undisclosed fee.

However, the deal was stalled by uncertainty surrounding the site, as campaigners tried and failed to give the building protection from demolition by getting it listed status.

The town council said "it could be repurposed to provide much needed infrastructure".

Paul Rochester said there was "still a lot of life" left in the building

Long Stratton's Labour district councillor, Georgina Race, said private investors had offered to buy the building to use part of it as an arts centre, with the rest available for "community purposes".

She added that 1,800 homes were already planned for the town and it did not need more properties.

Race said: "What we need is for somewhere for the community to go to and have a community building.

"We've got a village hall built in 1906, when the residents in Long Stratton totalled about 500 people. We've now got 4,000 people."

Resident Paul Rochester said the "vast majority" of people in the town wanted the building – which is 49 years old – to be used as a community space.

"It's a huge site [there's] so much potential within the building itself. It just beggars belief as to why it should be levelled."

South Norfolk House has been empty for three years

But Elmer said it was "a taxpayer-owned building, it belongs to all the residents of south Norfolk".

He insisted the private investors' deal did not offer "proof of funds" and the council had "a legal and moral duty to get the best return for the taxpayer off of that site".

Elmer added that the dispute over the future of the building had cost the authority about £250,000 a year to maintain the site.

He also said he was unsure what kind of housing the site would be used for, should the building be demolished.

A report advises members of the council's planning committee go give the go-ahead to demolition.