East Renfrewshire Council’s headquarters should be demolished.

That is the view expressed in a new report by Turner and Townsend Consultants, who say the council could save £260,000 a year by knocking its Eastwood Park HQ down.

The consultancy firm was commissioned last year to prepare a property management and accommodation strategy for the local authority’s 42 corporate buildings.

READ MORE: Eastwood Park deemed ‘unsuitable’ for new state-of-the-art leisure centre

And it has laid out options for the council’s office accommodation needs from 2020, including the sale of Eastwood Park for housing.

Peter McKinlay, who prepared the report, said: “There is too much office space, spread over too many buildings that are costly to run and maintain. The time is right for the council to grasp the opportunity to re-configure its offices and corporate properties to meet its needs for the future.”

In his recommendation, Mr McKinlay said the council should refurbish and retain its Barrhead offices and move those working in “side off space” in Eastwood to the Burnfield Road and Spiersbridge facilities.

As part of that, he called on the council to demolish its Eastwood Park HQ while keeping the existing offices at the Thornliebank depot.

It has also been recommended that the council should carry out a master planning exercise on Eastwood Park, taking into consideration the possibility of extending St Ninian’s High School and placing a new leisure centre there.

Mr McKinlay also said that, if the council chooses to sell Eastwood Park for high-end housing, then it should seek to “maximise the opportunity” to make around £2.9million.

There would also need to be work to find a suitable council chambers, with costs and other related information required.

Options for the council chambers include the Barrhead Main Street offices, Eastwood House, Capelrig House and the McGuire Building, in Barrhead.

Barrhead News:

The offices in Barrhead Main Street are being considered 

Four other options were laid out by the consultants.

The first includes building a new state-of-the-art HQ, disposing of the four existing offices and cutting the workforce by 20 per cent.

The second option would see a new HQ built in Eastwood Park, with the sale of the Burnfield Road offices and the buyout of the Spiersbridge site’s lease.

READ MORE: Council chiefs urged to consider ‘alternative’ plan for Eastwood Leisure Centre

Another option is to terminate the Spiersbridge lease and move staff to Burnfield Road and Eastwood Park while retaining the Thornliebank depot.

And the final option would see all of the current offices retained, with space in Burnfield Road to be refurbished and rented to a nursery or another company which needs office space.

A formal accommodation strategy is expected to be approved by councillors next year.