PART of the former Taunton Deane Borough Council headquarters will be rented out to commercial tenants to generate income for front-line services.

Deane House, on Belvedere Road in Taunton, served as the headquarters first for the borough council and then Somerset West and Taunton Council, hosting the majority of each local authority’s public meetings and housing large numbers of its officers.

Somerset Council, which replaced the district authority in April 2023) has been reviewing its property portfolio, with surplus assets being either sold off to generate one-off funds or rented out to provide regular income.

The council has now indicated that the first and second floors of Deane House could soon be rented out to organisations in the private and voluntary sectors, with all existing staff moving down the road to County Hall.

The proposals came before the council’s corporate and resources scrutiny committee when it met at Deane House on May 29.

Under the proposals, all staff currently based on the first and second floors would relocate to County Hall on The Crescent from August 1.

The ground floor, which includes the council’s customer services reception and Taunton’s police station, will remain open as usual.

The committee rooms on the first floor – including the council chamber – are currently still used for council committee meetings, including the monthly meetings of its planning committee west (which handles major applications within the former Somerset West and Taunton area).

Under the proposals, meetings would remain available for council use for two-and-a-half days per week, allowing meetings to still be held on site.