The issue of the West Dorset District Council offices has remained at the top of the election agenda – and there are still questions that have not been answered in the Conservative administration’s latest leaflet.

If the current offices are as awful as they tell us, why would anyone want to pay the £3.5million stated in their sums? Who would want to buy all those corridors?

If the National Trust is to take over running the Old Crown Court, how much of a ‘dowry’ will be needed? The National Trust already has a phenomenal property maintenance bill and unsurprisingly does not take on new properties without an endowment.

No sum for this appears in the council’s figures.

If the National Trust is to provide better access and make the building energy efficient it will require substantial funds. Are we being asked to pay for this as well as paying for new offices? In which case why can’t we just pay once – for WDDC to upgrade the building?

If the Trust doesn’t take over the building, what will happen to it? Will it stand empty and unloved, or will it be flogged off to the highest bidder and lost as a public building? Or will it be leased? In which case will the council still have to maintain and improve the property?

How much would it actually cost for WDDC to upgrade the current offices?

A large proportion of the district’s population lives in old, inefficient buildings. Wouldn’t it be better to lead a campaign to improve all our old buildings?

Turning to the new library and adult education centre (which WDDC conveniently forgets is also paid for by the public, though by a different authority): is the planned accommodation adequate?

The current library is not just the library for Dorchester, but also the headquarters of the County Library service. Can all its services be provided in the proposed new library? If it has to be split between two sites, how much will that add to the costs of the service overall? And how much would that add to the County’s carbon footprint?

There have been some excellent new libraries around the country that have been developed to provide new services and encourage new users. Is there enough space for a 21st century library here, and is the adult education centre big enough?

And what will happen to the current library site? (Surely an ideal place for new council offices – close enough to share facilities with the county council, in the right place if the councils merge, and could even save money!) Is the developer so financially fragile that the company needs public investment? Will the developer actually deliver the rest of the project? Why has it been necessary to hand them nearly £1million before the project has even started?

I hope the members of the Executive Committee had the answers to these questions before they embarked on this scheme. They have certainly not felt the need to share the information, and without it the Conservatives have failed to make their case to the public.

On May 5 we have the chance to vote for councillors who work for us, not just for developers.

KATE HEBDITCH, Friary Hill, Dorchester