A prominent council building in Yeovil town centre will soon be sold off, with local services relocating to the nearby library.

Petters House, on Petters Way near the Octagon Theatre, was operated by South Somerset District Council as a customer access point before the building transferred over to the new Somerset Council in April 2023.

Council officers have been carrying out a thorough review of all council-owned land, property and assets, with a view to disposing of buildings which are now surplus to requirements and reinvesting the proceeds into front-line services.

The council has now approved plans to sell off Petters House for redevelopment in the coming months – with further changes being examined for the former district council headquarters on Brympton Way.

Sara Kelly, the council’s property rationalisation programme manager, laid out the rationale for this decision when the council’s corporate and resources scrutiny committee met in Taunton on Thursday morning (March 7).

She said in her presentation to the committee: “Detailed design and costing has been undertaken, which has shown that Yeovil Library is a viable location to create an integrated customer service delivery solution.

“This will allow customers to access all council services from a single site
in Yeovil town centre.

“Additional services operating from the library will not be affected and there will be no reduction in library book stock.

“New interview rooms will be constructed on the ground floor of the library to assist with confidentiality.

“Yeovil Library has recently undergone a nationally recognised decarbonisation scheme, meaning the building is energy efficient and supports our climate change commitments.”

Councillor Henry Hobhouse (who represents Castle Cary and the surrounding villages) welcomed the decision, stating: “I’m really pleased you are selling Petters House.

“One of our previous chief executives envisaged that he wanted to move the whole council into there without doing it up.

“As the police are still going ahead with updating their police station, I take it you’ll be losing one of your tenants at Brympton Way?

“Are you planning to put a bulldozer through it and rebuild, or are you planning long-term to go somewhere else?”

Avon and Somerset Constabulary announced its intention in 2018 to replace the Horsey Lane facility with a brand new station, at a cost of £6.2m.

While the plans were at an early stage, many police staff relocated up the road to Brympton Way, renting offices from the district council.

Construction on this new station never began, with the force blaming Brexit and the coronavirus pandemic for the the delays and formally scrapping the plans in April 2023 in favour of refurbishing the existing station.

Ms Kelly responded: “With the police occupation of Brympton Way, the lease end date for that coincides with some significant leases that the NHS is looking at.

“What we want to do is look at any opportunities that may present to co-locate.

“We need to look at a number of options in Yeovil. It will be subject to a full feasibility study, and there will be several options within there – one of which may be an interim solution while we wait for our finances to recover.

“We know that Brympton Way isn’t in the best location or the best condition, and if and when the police vacate that building is, financially speaking, not great for us.

“But we need to do a full feasibility and options appraisal so that we can make an informed decision.”

Further updates on the council’s property portfolio will come back to the committee in the coming months, with officers currently prioritising a review of Taunton assets – such as the sale of C Block of County Hall for residential development.