The Civic Centre in Trowbridge will be offered to the NHS as a coronavirus vaccination venue.

An extraordinary meeting of Trowbridge Town Council tonight, councillors agreed to delegate authority to the town clerk in consultation with the council leader to contract out the Civic Centre for use as a vaccination site.

The original motion proposed by the leader of the town’s Conservative group, Antonio Piazza and seconded by Cllr Thomas Bazan.

Despite many councillors agreeing with the original motion and supporting it on social media, not all were pleased.

However, Cllr Geoff Whiffen said “compassion is overruling logic” adding the council did not know how long the Covid crisis would last and asked members if they were “prepared to write an open-ended cheque”.

Cllr Andrew Bryant questioned the lack of cost to the council of letting the NHS use the Civic Centre pro bono.

Town clerk, Lance Allen said there was no cost because there was no demand at present.

Replying Cllr Bryant said he was still concerned as there was no way of controlling the cost and demand.

An amendment was proposed by Cllr Steve Oldrieve and seconded by Cllr Cavill. This means the town council agrees in principle to contract the Civic Centre free of charge, pending levels of usage and demand.

The decision for this would be delegated to the town clerk in consultation with the leader of the town council, Stewart Palmen.

Cllr Piazza said: “We are in an emergency and I think we have to do what is absolutely necessary in this situation, regardless of the cost.”

All councillors with the exception of Cllr Whiffen voted in favour of the amended motion.