A HAMPSHIRE council may soon be selling its headquarters and moving to the town centre, the Daily Echo can reveal.

Hundreds of staff will be transferred from Eastleigh Borough Council’s giant Leigh Road base to a smaller site nearer the High Street.

Council bosses say having offices in the town centre will be more convenient for residents but any move must be cost neutral or make savings.

However, critics say they want more information and have concerns about the possible future uses of their current site.

Leader Keith House said the Leigh Road set up was “something of an environmental disaster” that was “still too hot in summer and too cold in winter.”

“We recognise that this building is too big for us and we already have staff on flexible hours or working from home so are looking to downsize our offices,” he said.

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“Being all the way down Leigh Road, off the motorway, is not the best location, I think we moved there in 1970 because it was cheap.

“It will be more convenient for most of our customers who want to sort out their housing benefit or council tax if we are near the shops and a bus stop.

“In regards to which building we might be moving to, we are not quite there yet but we hope to have more details soon, we are still at the exploratory stage.”

He went on to say he thought the council had picked its original site because it was cheap and bosses would want to ensure that any move did not cost more.

If successful the authority would then look at the possibility of selling its current site.

Leader of the Conservative Group Godfrey Olson was council boss in 1976 when the building was opened.

He said: “I am extremely worried that decisions like this are carried out behind closed doors and presented to the rest of the council when it is already a done deal.

“I would want to know a lot more information including what the old building would be used for, would it stay as office space or be turned into flats, that would be one of the fears.”

He said the building cost about £1m when it was built but it is now worth many times that figure.

The move would take place over the next 18 months to two years.

The council employ 530 staff, 320 of which are based at the authority’s headquarters.

A report on the matter will be considered by the Joint Scrutiny Panel on November 9 before going to Cabinet on November 11 for recommendation to Full Council in December.