Melton Council to operate from temporary offices

About 30 employees will be working from the Phoenix Centre in Nottingham under the council's emergency insurance cover.

Other staff will be answering calls from the former tourist centre in King Street, Melton.

No-one was injured in the fire which destroyed more than half of the council's Nottingham Road HQ. Structural engineers are due to examine the site on Monday.

The fire is thought to have started in a single-storey wing of the offices, which contained the council chamber and register office, but then spread but it is not yet known how it started.

Speaking on the BBC's Politics Show in the East Midlands, Councillor Malise Graham, leader of the council, said the authority had an emergency plan which meant it could continue to operate.

"The planning department is completely gone but everything is backed up, so it's really just a question of seeing what aid has been offered, getting departments issued to new rooms and getting new technology up and running.

"Things will not be back to normal for a very long time, but we will be able to cope.

"Council is about people, not about buildings. As long as people are looked after and the services and regulatory side is done, that's fine."

Local businesses including Pera and Brooksby Melton College have offered to help house council meetings.