Herefordshire Council's multi-million pound move to a new HQ is on hold.

The council's strategic monitoring committee met in secret session yesterday (Wednesday) and sent the case for buying and converting the former HP Bulmer offices in Plough Lane, Hereford, back to cabinet.

After the meeting, committee chairman councillor Terry James said members wanted a move but needed "more options" if they were to assess what would be the council's biggest capital project yet.

Coun James said that the only bigger project was Hereford's Edgar Street Grid development, to which the location of a new council HQ was crucial.

The grid, he said, was one of the options his committee wanted to be explored as home to a purpose-built base that the council would share with the police and other partner agencies.

Cabinet, said Coun James, was "too focused" on attracting a major retail chain to the grid.

"Why should the council buy a new HQ site when it largely owns most of the grid. Access alone makes Plough Lane the wrong place," he said.

Council leader Roger Phillips, also speaking after the meeting, said that cabinet could talk through the move again as soon as next Thursday (June 23). He denied any deal had been done - or was in the offing - to bring a major retailer or retailers to the grid.

The grid, he said, was still seen as the likely home for a new Hereford library.

Yesterday's meeting was the second time in a week that the strategic monitoring committee went into secret session to hear the case for a Plough Lane base.

During the first meeting, committee members criticised the plan in open session for its apparent lack of detail.

Then, Coun Roger Phillips told the critics that their questions had to be answered behind closed doors without compromising the council's current negotiations with brewers Scottish and Newcastle, which owns the Plough Lane offices.

He said that a purpose-built base came with higher construction specifications that pushed costs up and whatever went on the Edgar Street Grid had to "add value" to the city centre.

Councillor Barry Ashton said the cost of converting Plough Lane could be "considerably more" than a new building.

"With a purpose-built site you are getting exactly what you want," he said.

Herefordshire Council has long been looking to cut back on the number of sites from which it operates, in favour of a single base with satellite offices in the market towns and some villages.

As revealed by the Hereford Times, the move to a new HQ would put almost every other council property - including Hereford Town Hall and the council's Brockington base - on the market.

The council currently rents half of the Plough Lane site and some 200 of its staff work there. A new HQ would need other offices to house around 1,000 staff.