Doubt over council office future

The building's fate is likely to be decided later in the week

The offices of a Leicestershire council that were badly damaged in a fire may have to be knocked down and rebuilt.

Melton Borough Council's headquarters on Nottingham Road caught fire on Friday morning.

Emergency locations have now been found for most services and the council's website and telephone number are up and running again.

Engineering experts and councillors are now inspecting the building to see if it can be saved.

Council leader Malise Graham said the top two floors had been destroyed and the ground floor suffered water damage.

Twisted metal

However the finance department and offices of the East Midlands Regional Assembly survived the fire.

About 30 employees of Melton Borough Council will be working from the Phoenix Centre in Nottingham.

Other staff will be answering calls from the former tourist centre in King Street, Melton.

Mr Graham admitted the damage was severe enough to put the structure's future in doubt.

"It is a question of getting structural engineers in to look and around and ask them whether it is saveable or should it come down and that is a question that will be answered over the next few days.

"It is very possible that it will have to be demolished, certainly the main part. I'm not a structural engineer but there is a lot of twisted metal and not much else."

No-one was injured in the fire. It is not yet known how the blaze started.