CITY council leaders have been ordered to reconsider their controversial plan to look closely at putting a high street coffee chain in Worcester's Guildhall.

No decisions have yet been made regarding the Guildhall's future, but Worcester City Council's leadership wants to keep all options open for the time being - including the possibility of leasing out the ground floor to a coffee outlet such as Starbucks or Costa Coffee.

A cross-party working group had previously recommended that certain options for the Guildhall, including the so-called "Starbucks solution", should be completely ruled out before a consultant is hired to advise the council how it can maximise its income from the 18th century building.

Last month the Tory cabinet rejected this, insisting the consultant should look at all the options available - but now councillors have told the leadership to think again.

Worcester City Council's watchdog scrutiny committee this week took the unusual step of sending the leadership's decision back to cabinet for further consideration.

Labour councillor Marc Bayliss, who sat on the original cross-party working group, told the committee: "I was outraged by the cabinet's decision.

"We know all these options are feasible for the Guildhall - but we on the working group were asked to look at the which the council would actually be likely to support.

"The most contentious issue was the use of the lower hall as a venue for a coffee house.

"This was a bipartisan group, but we came to almost unanimous agreement about what was acceptable and what was not.

"We debated that carefully and recommended this should not go forward. But the cabinet just overruled us. We wasted our time - the consultation was a sham."

But leader Councillor Simon Geraghty defended the cabinet's decision, saying: "We wanted to hear the working group's comments, but we weren't asking the group to do our job for us. The decision-making body is still the cabinet.

"We haven't said we're going to do anything for definite yet, but we want the specialist advice on what the financial implications of each option would be.

"The only point of contention here is what we ask for advice about.

"We're not saying there will be a Starbucks coffee shop in the lower hall, but we do want to hear what the specialist says."

The issue will be reconsidered by the cabinet tomorrow.