Biddulph Town Council is looking for tenants to give a new lease of life to the Biddulph Grange Country Park visitor centre.

Councillors discussed their hopes for the visitor centre at a meeting of the council's Finance Strategy and Management Committee last night (Tuesday), with a range of ideas being discussed on what could be done with the building.

As the country prepares to come out of lockdown, councillors are hoping that tenants will come forward with suggestions on how they could use the visitor centre, with ideas such as cafés, workshops and crafts being discussed.

The town council's chief officer, Sarah Haydon, said: "This is something we started considering a couple of years ago, but we've recently had quite a few enquiries about what we're going to do with the visitor centre.

"We need a way of deciding what would be the most suitable thing to do with it. Lots of people want to run a café there, but there are other options too such as using the workshop at the back."

Cllr John Jones said the building's café and workshop could be used for two separate ideas.

He said: "We can see what people offer as and when they offer it, but we have two elements to think about - the café and the workshop, so they could be separate things."

Cllr Wayne Rogers suggested giving the building a seasonal element, so its use could change depending on the time of year.

He said: "We could do something with seasonal crafts like Christmas Santas or Easter bunnies, so it keeps changing and its not the same all the time."

While Cllr Jill Salt suggested something to "encourage the green economy", saying: "We could have something like a refill shop, like something where you can refill your soap bottles, to encourage the green economy."

Sarah Haydon added: "We want something that will attract people to the visitor centre and encourage them to come back. We are keen on encouraging new businesses and people who want to work with us."

Cllr Jones felt that at this stage councillors should simply wait for the proposals of potential tenants before continuing to discuss what the building could be used for.

He said: "At this point we just need to see what interest there is and what people are proposing, before we actually talk about what to do with it."

Councillors agreed to approve the work that had been done so far when it came to finding a tenant, and to continue in their search for a way to bring the building back to life.