Town councillors have voted to vacate the Sandbach Literary Institute as their venue to hold council meetings, with the mayor saying it would be "detrimental to the public purse" if they continued to rent it.

At an 'extraordinary meeting' of the town council on Thursday (15 October), held via Zoom, town councillors approved a proposal to give notice that they will vacate the building before the end December.

Sandbach mayor, Cllr Geraint Price Jones, said there were a number of reasons for giving notice on the lease, including the institute's lack of disabled access and that it is not being utilised with virtual meetings and staff working remotely.

Cllr Richard Hovey said that during a previous September town council meeting, councillors agreed that "staff would not be forced back to work in the office environment, if they were able to work safely from home and appropriately from home", meaning the office space was not currently needed.

He added: "We've had a long-standing project to try and find appropriate office accommodation that is accessible both for disabled members of staff and members of the public with mobility problems… The institute is full of steps, both internally and externally. It's not an appropriate location for us as a town council."

Cllr Hovey described the councils funding as being "under attack" due to the pandemic, with the council-owned town hall not being rented out for private events and meetings as it normally would.

"If we can save money by not renting the institute, I think that's an appropriate thing to do," he said.

Cllr Gill Merry agreed, saying: "The institute is not a suitable place to house people. There is very little ventilation; it's cold; it doesn't have adequate kitchen or toilet facilities only, only a cobbled together cupboard under the stairs; there is no disabled access.

"At the moment, we are paying rent for rooms we occupy only with furniture and it doesn't seem to make any sense at all."

Cllr Merry suggested that should staff need to return to an office space, they could use the boardroom located in the town hall.

While the town council would remove most of its belongings from the institute, Cllr Hovey proposed they offer the furniture to the institute as "most of it has come to the end of its useful life".

Cllr John Beddows raised concerns that if the council were to leave the institute, there is a risk the prominent building could fall into "disrepair".

He added: "So we need to maybe think about what our responsibility is, not as a town council in the sense of premises, but our responsibility to the focal point of the town."

Cllr Sandra Broad replied that she has applied to join the board of trustees for the institute to help manage the building and urged some of her colleagues to join.

Councillors have previously said that the long-term plans for the town council's accommodation are in the early stages.