FILTON Town Council is forging ahead with an office extension costing up to £150,000 – despite an outcry from residents who say they have never been consulted.

The furore follows the most recent civic row, which saw the council forced to pull out of a deal to level off playing fields at Elm Park after a welter of protests from residents.

In this latest scheme, the council has invited tenders for the work to extend the town council office for its three staff next to the leisure centre.

Residents say the plans are a waste of money and that the council could find office space for a fraction of the cost.

The council had already salted away £30,000 towards a ground floor extension but now there are plans for two storeys so that an upstairs meeting room could also be provided in the future.

In the minutes of the council's Finance and General Purposes Committee for June 8, it states that quotes for the work ranged between £63,980 and £155,244 (not including VAT).

Councillors subsequently asked the firms with the two lowest quotes to attend for interview but it then transpired that one of them had misquoted and the tendering process had to start again.

Another meeting of the committee on Tuesday is expected to recommend a tender to full council, which meets one week later in the Pavilion at Elm Park, starting at 7.30pm.

Mike Greenslade, one of the campaigners against the levelling of the playing fields, said: "No one has consulted the council taxpayers about how this £150,000 should be spent.

"Why spend it on a new office when they have just taken over Conygre House where there would be plenty of space for an office?"

Another resident, retired sound engineer David Tombs, said: "I think some of the councillors are only interested in pursuing their own agendas."

A website called filtonresid ents.co.nr has called for a review of the proposals and to examine alternatives.

It claims no initial study was carried out and the town council did not fully debate the options.

Councillor Brian Freeguard, chairman of the Finance committee, said: "Not a penny for this is coming out of public funds.

"If we don't provide an office with the required square footage, we have been warned by the district council's solicitor that we risk being summoned or charged for not providing proper duty of care."

He said most of the money would come from what is known as 106 funding, which is paid by developers as a condition of planning consent.

Mr Freeguard said the extension would be built as part of a district council scheme to use 106 money from Hewlett Packard to build a new, bigger library.

He said a shortfall of about £30,000 would come from 106 money, which the town council had as a result of previous planning decisions.

The current council office is part of the leisure comple.

The council uses the library for some council meetings or councillors' surgeries where they hold private one-to-one meetings with residents to hear their problems.

Mr Freeguard said: "We have got to build a meeting room with that money from the library – otherwise it will be lost."

In July, councillors decided to pull out of a contract with Churngold to deliver thousands of tonnes of topsoil to level the playing fields.

The council wanted to use the money generated to revamp the centre but residents were furious they were not consulted and claimed the contract was poor.

Councillors made their decision to pay Churngold £36,500 to end the contract after three Labour councillors walked out before the vote.