Its chief executive David Clarke is the face of the six-minute film telling people that:

• It's cheaper for the council to move than to stay where it is
• New council offices and a possible library will mean better access for customers
• Public parking spaces in the town centre will be freed up, in addition to 484 car parking spaces remaining in Charles Street
• The council's carbon footprint will be reduced
• The Old Crown Court would be developed as a heritage attraction

A .wmv [12Mb] (opens in a new window) and transcript for the embedded YouTube video are available.

Mr Clarke said: "As part of its continued search for savings the district council has decided that it makes no sense to continue to invest taxpayers' money into the existing buildings which, when built, were never designed as offices.

"It is cheaper for us to downsize and move to modern and efficient offices than to stay. The new building will be less than half the size of current campus.

"Importantly, the new offices will reduce our carbon footprint and will save the taxpayers between £140,000 and £160,000 a year.

"The new offices will be better for customers because they will be able to access all services in one new convenient place rather than at the various different receptions we have now.

"As the first phase of the redevelopment, the offices will also be a key boost to secure the £60m private investment in the Charles Street retail, housing and hotel development."

The costs of building the new offices will be around £10.7 million. The district council can fund this by selling the Stratton House complex, which it expects will fetch around £3.5 million. The authority has already built up £3 million in reserves to meet the high costs of maintaining Stratton House over the next few years. The council can afford to either use current reserves or borrow up to £4.2 million to fund the rest of the new building costs, because it will not be paying huge utility bills, cleaning and maintenance at Stratton House. The cost of borrowing for local authorities is at historically very low interest rates which can be fixed for the period of the loan.

The council will also ensure the continued use of the existing Stratton House site, made up of several historically important buildings. In particular, negotiations are ongoing with the National Trust about the future of the Old Crown Court and Cells, based in the Shire Hall part of the council offices.

West Dorset District Council's Head of Corporate Resources and Health Adrian Stuart said: "Moving to new offices will help us improve efficiency and provide further savings to maintain front line services in the longer term.

"If the proposals get planning permission, we expect to move in to the new offices during early summer 2012."

He added: "The council needs to move because the alternative is to make a significant investment in our current Stratton House site.

"Even after making such an investment we would still be occupying buildings that are wholly unsuitable to their current use as offices, will cost more to maintain, clean, heat and light than is reasonable to expect, and prevent us from working effectively and efficiently as a single organisation."