Town hall to get £300,000 revamp

Renovation work will start in January (pic: Manxscenes)

A £300,000 facelift of Douglas Town Hall has been agreed and renovation work is due to start in 2008.

The main bulk of the work will be on the outside of the building.

The Douglas Corporation's headquarters are a focal point of the town and to move to a new building would not be right, a council spokesman said.

The cost of the renovation was due to the town hall being a protected building, the Douglas Council chairman, David Christian, said.

"You can understand why people move their major headquarters to brand new office developments, because the running and maintenance costs are a lot lower than what it is to keep a building like this going.

"I think to suggest to move it out of the town would be met with contempt by the majority of the people," he added.