A TOWN council has officially moved into its new home at a community hall.

Staff at Halstead Town Council have spent much of the last week moving everything out of their old home at Mill House and into the newly refurbished Queens Hall.

The hall has been undergoing extensive restoration work over several months and now has a brand new kitchen, toilet facilities and office space.

Town council chairman and mayor, Shirley Diver, has spoken of her delight at the new facilities.

She said: “We are very pleased with it.

“We could have stayed where we were but if we did that it would have pushed everything back.

“The hall is lighter, cleaner and so much more modern.

“I’m pleased with the feedback we have had about the kitchen, hall and disabled toilets.”

Work on the hall began in September, when it was closed for just over a month.

The hall partially re-opened to the public back in October, however work on the town council’s offices wasn’t completed until the end of the month.

The old stage, which was a big feature in the public area, has been removed in order to make room for the new offices.

The council is seeking to bring a retractable stage in as a replacement but are still in the process of applying for a grant.

Mrs Diver added: “Now the stage has gone it’s more flexible as we can move everything around. The U3A group were in there the other day and with everything set up it looked fantastic.

“We have tried to accommodate as many people as we can but there will always be some people who won’t be happy.

“We needed a hall that could be used for lots of different things and I think we now have that.”