Richmondshire District Council has deferred a decision on the future of Colburn community office.
The council has proposed moving the office from the library in Colburn to a converted flat in Oak Tree Court.
However, the plan has proved unpopular with some residents.
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One Oak Tree resident told Richmondshire Today: “Oak Tree Court is a sheltered housing building.
“The influx of members of the public to Oak Tree Court will put elderly, vulnerable people at risk.”
A decision was due to be made at the council’s corporate board meeting yesterday.
But the authority has decided to defer the vote until next month’s corporate board meeting instead.
A spokesperson said: “This will allow more time to ensure all avenues have been explored and the relevant information needed to make the decision has been provided.”
Officers say the Colburn facility, where residents can access a range of the authority’s services, has outgrown its base in the town’s library as space was needed to provide support to customers with queries.
Since being taken on as a community-run library, it has been reorganised, leaving the community officer beside the children’s play area.
This has increased concerns about privacy and dealing with sensitive issues in the open part of the library and staff working at the office have also flagged the cramped conditions they are working in.
However, as there were no available premises near the library on Broadway, and officers concluded the new office needed to be near the library and preferably in council ownership, it has been proposed to convert a council flat in Oak Tree Court.
A report said the cost of converting the flat into an office would be up to £56,000.
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This will be the third move with council offices how much more of our money do they want to waste people are struggling to pay council tax etc and all the council is doing is spending money we can ill afford wake up and smell the roses other things more important than council employees complaining they can’t fit into the office my heart bleeds