Planning and commercial advisers could be appointed on contracts worth nearly half a million pounds for consultation and planning work to transform two riverside office blocks.

Mole Valley District Council provisionally approved allocating £478,000 from the Transform Leatherhead development reserve to procuring a team to produce an application for Claire House and James House this week. The council's executive will make a final decision later this month.

The council bought the two office blocks in Bridge Street in 2015 for £3.55million, and earmarked them for refurbishment as part of its ten-year, £200million masterplan to renovate the town in July last year.

The redevelopment could include a restaurant or café on the ground floor and possibly 46 residential flats above, council documents state.

From July: Mole Valley District Council approves '£200m' 10-year masterplan to transform Leatherhead

But Ashtead Park Councillor David Harper questioned the figure allocated towards commercial consultation and planning for the redevelopment at a scrutiny committee meeting on Monday, June 12. He also demanded transparency as to how it would be spent.

“To my small, tiny mind, it is an astronomical figure,” he said.

“I just can’t believe it would cost that much.”

Nick Gray, lead officer on the council’s strategic management team, explained that the sum of £478,000 was a “ballpark norm for a commercial development of this size”.

From April: Ten-year £200 million masterplan to Transform Leatherhead gets underway next week

Councillors had questioned whether the buildings might be best put to use as office spaces or a riverside hotel, but Mr Gray said that Colliers, a property agent hired by the council, had advised the officers against these plans.

“They were very clear that hotel providers would like a hotel in Leatherhead, but they would not want it there,” he said.

“Colliers (also) advised that we are unlikely to get a rent level on it that will cover our costs of doing that.”

The Transform Leatherhead project also includes plans for a new urban quarter at Bull Hill and Red House Gardens, renovate the Swan Centre and create a riverside park near Claire House and James House.

When the masterplan was approved last summer, Mr Gray said the project could last about ten years and cost about £200million.

The first extensive phase of the masterplan began in April with improvement works in Church Street.

The council's executive will meet to decide whether to approve the contracts on June 27.

For more information on the project, visit www.transformleatherhead.com

Got a story? Get in touch at craig.richard@london.newsquest.co.uk