PART of the former Didcot A power station is being considered as a possible new home for Vale of White Horse and South Oxfordshire district council staff.

On January 15, one year after a blaze almost destroyed the councils’ headquarters in Benson Lane, Crowmarsh Gifford, SODC leader John Cotton said the likelihood of staff returning was “near to zero” and that a move to a different site, near Didcot, was the likely option.

Now it has emerged that the former power station is one of a number of locations being considered by the councils for about 400 staff, currently working at a temporary base in Milton Park near Didcot.

The coal-fired Didcot A power station closed in 2013 and in 2014 three cooling towers were demolished.

Mr Cotton said: “The power station site is certainly a possibility – in terms of space we know roughly what we will need.

“Land agents have been briefed to find parcels of land with no particular constraints and we have a list of options.”

He added: “Didcot is a likely location for a number of reasons, including its new Garden Town status. I’m told there is a site at the power station which is on the border of both local authorities, with part of it in the Vale and part of it in South Oxfordshire.

“Land agents will come back to us at some point in March or April and we will see how the prices for different sites stack up.”

Mr Cotton added a new building would have to be ready to move into in three years’ time when the lease on its office at Milton Park ends.

The council leader said the best possible deal for taxpayers would be considered when any site was selected.

RWE spokesman Kelly Brown said part of the power station had been sold to Clowes Developments.

Clowes Developments and Graftongate has submitted a planning application to build 400 houses, shops, a hotel and pub on the 47-hectare site and the mixed-use development could also be used for employment.