THE cost to local taxpayers of a new civic and community building in Williton was called into question this week.

Williton Parish Council completed on a deal to buy West Somerset Council's former IT building in Killick Way last December.

The authority intends to use it as a parish office but will also lease out a section for commercial use, as well as making a meeting room and the foyer available for community use.

But at the annual parish assembly on Tuesday, villager Shaun Sowden criticised the council for going ahead with the scheme without consulting local people.

"I am very concerned about this - you have gone ahead and bought this building without any consultation," he said.

Mr Sowden said it worried him that the cost of the deal would fall on local taxpayers.

The assembly was told by finance committee chairman Cllr Bill Vaughan that the council had taken out a loan from the Public Loan Works Board to fund the £75,000 cost of buying the building, which is expected to cost around another £45,000 to refurbish.

Cllr Vaughan said it was a major investment for the council but its brief as an authority allowed it to invest in real estate.

He said the cost of repaying the loan would be around £9,000 a year, but the burden - and the running costs of the new premises - would be offset by an anticipated £4,000 a year in rent from leasing out part of the building for commercial use.

Council chairman Cllr Rosemary Woods said that when councillors first considered putting in a bid to buy the building, there was almost 100 per cent support for the idea.

When it was considered a second time, because of a district council hitch in the bidding process, it went through without opposition.

Cllr Woods said there had been a number of problems with the council's existing offices in the village's police station, which are leased from the Avon and Somerset force.

She said attempts to renegotiate the lease had been fraught with difficulty, with the result that for some time the council could not actually pay rent.

Cllr Woods said attempts had also been made to find other premises but all - including a request to use part of the district council's new headquarters - had failed.

Cllr Vaughan said the council needed bigger premises now and would certainly need the extra space in the future if, as expected, it was asked to take on responsibility for some services currently provided by the district council.

"There is a level of uncertainty over our present offices and if we do take on more responsibilities, we will have to employ more people," he said.