THE old council chamber in Watchet has been sold to a local angling company for £67,500 after many months of public consultation and waiting.
The town council announced this week its building at 5 Swain Street had been sold to Steven Liddell of West Coast Angling, which currently has a shop at number 53 in the street, as well as one in Minehead.
Clauses in the contract will ensure the grade two listed building’s status will remain unchanged and heritage assets safeguarded, including maintenance of the Coronation clock and its mechanism, the old fireplace and mantlepiece, and the old Watchet council sign.
Councillors decided to sell it in October last year and it went on the market in January with an asking price of £65,000.
Mr Liddell has secured a change of use for the building to be used for retail. Its 600 square foot area currently includes a main hall/meeting room, separate office and kitchen.
Council chairman Cllr Peter Murphy said: “The council regret that the process has taken so long, but we felt we could not go public with what was happening behind the scenes until the contract of sale had been completed, with everyone having signed on the dotted line and funds received from the sale.”
The council said this now ended a long running saga that began in 2015 when it began to actively seek new office premises, as the existing one was not adequate for its needs.
The council moved to a new office space at the boat museum in partnership with the Onion Collective, with shared use of the visitor centre for its meetings in return for providing a contribution to project costs of £60,000.
In March 2016, the council consulted the public about the future of the old council chamber and said it was open to approaches for the building to be kept for community use.
However, community groups had no resources to put into it and the council took advice and decided to market it.
Transfer of ownership was completed last Friday.