COUNCIL offices in Tadcaster are closing in a bid to cut costs.

Selby District Council will shut the current office at Westgate from Thursday.

From Tuesday, January 4, information and advice will be available from North Yorkshire County Council staff at the Library on Station Road.

The new partnership with the County Council, which runs library services in the area, mirrors a set up in Sherburn-in-Elmet to offer a combined information centre which has been run for several years.

There has been a fall in the number of people visiting the Tadcaster office, as increasingly more residents access information or make payments in alternative ways.

The move aims to reduce running costs for the District Council. Residents can still telephone the council’s customer services office between 8.30am and 5pm during the week (10am start on Wednesdays and 4.30pm finish on Fridays) or visit www.selby.gov.uk.

Council Leader Coun Mark Crane said: “Following the recent spending review, which set out reductions of around 28 per cent in government grant for local councils over the next four years, we have to look very carefully at everything we do. “By joining forces with the county council’s library in Tadcaster we can ensure that people still have a face-to-face point of contact, but it is a more cost-effective service.

“We have to be realistic about the choices we need to make given the need to reduce expenditure by around a third over the next few years. Our aim is to look at whether we can do things differently to save money rather than stop doing them altogether.

Staff at the current Tadcaster office of Selby District Council are part of a council-wide customer services team, and will continue to work as part of this larger team but be based at the main Access Selby site in Selby town centre.