A major refurbishment of historic Montrose Town House is now under way.
And the A-listed town centre property will be shut for five months for the £300,000 Angus Council project.
It is part of a programme to streamline the number of council properties in local towns.
An application for planning permission and listed building consent for the project was granted in August 2020.
But works on the building known locally as the Ballhouse were delayed by the pandemic.
Internally, it will involve stripping out the current council Access office and reception desk.
Existing radiators will be replaced and the open arcade under the first floor is to be refurbished.
External works will include roof repairs, refurbishment of the sash windows and stonework restoration.
Metal flower boxes added to the Town House long after it was built will be removed.
The planners’ view
Angus planning chiefs said: “Listed buildings of this nature require alteration and adaptation from time to time.
“The retention of original fabric has to be balanced against sustaining the beneficial use of the building.
“It is considered that this listed building can absorb the proposed changes without any unacceptable impacts to the structure, its setting or any features of special architectural or historic interest.”
Agile working
The council says its new role will be as a locality hub for council services and for staff to use as a drop-in base.
And the move is part of a programme to cut the number of council buildings to reduce costs and the organisation’s carbon footprint.
“Montrose Town House is an important building in the centre of the town,” the council said.
“This is part of Angus Council’s agile working programme, which started in 2015.
“This £300,000 investment will be more than offset by savings on the total reduction of council properties.”
But the Ballhouse sits just yards from the white elephant Queen’s Close homeless unit.
The council spent more than £350k on refurbishing the building after a fatal fire there in 2007.
But no-one has stayed in the 11-bedsit property for 15 years.
A deal to sell of for just £110k fell through and it is now going back on the market.
Montrose’s first municipal building was a medieval tollbooth in the middle of the High Street which mainly served as a prison.
By the mid-18th Century burgh leaders decided a building for civic gatherings was needed and the Town House was completed in 1764.
It was designed by John Hutcheson and built using local stone in a neoclassical style.
In 1818 it was extended in height and to the rear.
The main rooms were the courtroom at the back of the building, the council chamber at the front and a guild hall on the second floor.
And it was the base of the town council until the creation of Angus District Council in 1975.
It housed paintings including one of Sir James Duke, who was born in Montrose and went on to be a Liberal MP and served as Lord Mayor of London in 1847.
