Maureen Campbell, director of community services, told councillors this week that, while building a new municipal building had been considered last year, it was now "beyond the council" because of financial constraints.

The news came at a policy and resources committee meeting on Tuesday when the Labour-led administration was accused of dragging its feet in delivering the new building to the town.

Councillor David Alexander, the SNP group leader, claimed members had already agreed to the new build last summer, but that nothing had been done about it.

But council leader,Councillor Linda Gow said that no such plan had been agreed and that the council was still looking at all the options for better accommodation.

During the meeting, members were told that the current HQ, including the offices, the town hall, district court and council chambers, was nearing the end of its life and that a working group had been looking at how to improve them either by refurbishment or re-building works.

But Mr Alexander argued that no progress had been made at all.
He said: "I dug out the report from August 2007 and it's almost word-for-word to this report.

"Nothing has been done in 16 months.

"We were told in the last report that the best value option was for a
new build, and that was approved. We're going round in circles.

But Mrs Gow said: "A decision for a new build was not taken, it was only recommended that that would be the best value option.

"Members did ask to be updated on the work being done and that's why we have this report."

However, Ms Campbell suggested that the new-build proposal could be off the table at the moment because it would need to be funded through capital investment.

She said: "While a new build had been considered best value last year, it is beyond the council at this time because of the current economic climate.

"The prospect of capital receipts has been significantly eroded in recent months due to the pressures of the financial markets, and that is likely to restrict the council's capacity to move the project forward in the short term.''