A council has decided to proceed with a scheme to buy offices instead of renting one.

Councillors for Walmer parish voted to apply for a £250,000 loan to buy a property about 300m along the road from its present rented office in The Strand, Walmer.

Already with £72,000 in reserve, the borrowed cash from the Public Works Loan Board will be over a 20 year term.

The property is at 62 The Strand. It is currently up for sale at a guide price of £365,000 with Bright & Bright estate agents but the council’s lower offer of £335,000 has been accepted, subject to contract.

Using £15,000 from the discontinued Hawkshill conservation plan and £57,000 of unrestricted funding, the council has a shortfall of £200,000.

The loan would also cover the £15,000 estimated contingency costs associated with the move.

It will comprise a suite of offices and be used as a community hub, potentially bringing in revenue.

The agenda for that meeting gave the results of a month long consultation with parishioners which ran throughout October.

It said opinions were split 50/50 over whether the council should buy the office. And 49.06% of respondents were in favour of increasing the precept, adding £5.46 to the council's portion of the council tax for the area's 513 band D properties which currently pay £48.66 a year. 50.94% were against.

At the time of the consultation, Cllr Chris Vinson said: "He said: "Bizarrely, this new office will cost at least £10,000 more each year than the current £6,000 annual lease.

"Even more bizarre, the office they plan to buy doesn’t have any rooms big enough to hold Parish Council meetings! So they will have to find an alternative at additional cost to the public."

Former councillor Margaret Ludwig questioned the suitability of the property in question during the consultation, where it is not even big enough to hold meetings.

But Cllr Mike Eddy described the current renting scenario as a "drain on resources" and said: “Since we have been there, we have already spent some £65,000 on rent and making the room fit for purpose and if we see out the remaining seven years of the lease it will be at least another £42,000 gone forever.

"By purchasing a property, the money will stay within Walmer and it will be a community owned asset rather than a drain on our financial resources."

Leader of the council Cllr James Murray said the increase would cost equivalent to 10.5p a week and is "less than a cigarette".

Councillors voted for the purchase by eight votes for, three against, and there was one abstention.

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