Town council could move into Priory in bid to sell off offices

As part of its asset review, Thatcham Town Council has come up with various options for making best use of its resources. One of the suggestions was to convert the Priory building, located in Church Lane, for its own use, keep the adjoining Hub building for community use, and sell off or rent out the current council offices in Brownsfield Road.
However, if converting the Grade II-listed Priory is not financially viable, then a second suggestion that it should be sold was put forward.
The town council has owned the Priory since 2010, having bought it off West Berkshire Council for £400,000.
At the time, the plan was to turn it into a community facility. However, the only work carried out has been the building of the Hub, into which Thatcham neighbourhood police team moved on a temporary basis, when the Chapel Street police station closed last year.
In the past, Conservative members of the town council have said that the Priory should be sold off as plans to redevelop the site appeared to be going nowhere.
At a meeting of the community resource centre committee last week, Conservative town and district councillor for the central ward, Richard Crumly, went one step further and suggested that the Priory be demolished to make way for other developement.
He said: “One of the things to explore would be the proposal of demolishing the Priory and use the land.
"That might be more cost affective then re-doing an old building.”
However, the Liberal Democrats have quashed that idea, and town councillor Owen Jeffery (Thatcham South and Crookham) said: “I would be astonished if this council felt the demolition of the Priory would be the optimum solution.”
Fellow Liberal Democrat town councillor, Gary Johnson (Thatcham West), added: “In a few years down the line, we are going to have a prestigious building that the community will enthuse about. It’s a great asset for the town.”
Members decided to delay the decision, but a working party has been set up to establish the accommodation requirements of the town council and gauge public opinion.