AN AMAZING council U-turn will see staff moved back into Worcester’s Guildhall – only four years after being shunted out to offices elsewhere.

Incredulous opposition councillors have accused city leaders of “doing the hokey-cokey” with their own workforce after plans were revealed to re-house council staff in the Guildhall to save money.

The number of staff affected and the cost of the moves are not yet known.

But the announcement comes after it emerged a £10,000 consultants’ study on how the Guildhall should be used – the city’s second such consultancy in two years – has had to be shelved, because the council cannot afford to implement any of the suggestions.

Instead, leaders have now decided to raise cash by renting out one of the council’s other office buildings on Farrier Street, and moving staff back into the Guildhall.

“We would have to bring some staff, at least in the short term, back into the south wing,” said head of governance John Scarborough, explaining the plan to the budget scrutiny committee. “I think that fits with the best use of this facility.”

The council moved most staff out of the Guildhall in late 2004. City leader Simon Geraghty said then that the move into the modern Orchard House complex would “bring incalculable benefits over a great many years”.

But the council has since failed to identify a new use for the historic building, succeeding only in renting out one wing to the local police.

Mr Scarborough said: “We’ve not been able to achieve the other lettings we would have liked. This (plan) is the best use of our assets.”

Labour councillors expressed disbelief at the U-turn, however.

“What are the costs of all this?” Councillor Marc Bayliss wanted to know. “It’s a bit like doing the hokey-cokey with our staff, isn’t it?”

But Coun Geraghty said the scheme was designed to save money.

“The most lettable bit of our office space is the Orchard House complex,” he said. “So the proposal is to let out Wyatt House – one of the three buildings – and there’s a gain there we think we can achieve.”

Regarding the Guildhall, he added: “Utilising this building has got to be one of the things we look at. Clearly the office accommodation here is not as lettable as the higher standard of accommodation Orchard House.”

The council’s long-term plan for the Guildhall, announced in December, is for it to house the city museum from 2013.

But that scheme will only succeed if the council can win a hefty lottery grant – the move is expected to cost well over £1 million.

Meanwhile, the taxpayer-funded £10,000 report on the future of the Guildhall has still not been released to the public.

But cabinet member for customer care Councillor David Clark told councillors recently: “The suggestions put forward have been costed and they are absolutely impossible. It would cost us an absolute fortune to make the changes, so we’re in a state of limbo.”