A mystery bidder could scupper Harrow Council’s plans to acquire a popular Wealdstone venue.

The council was hoping to acquire Premier House on Canning Road and knock down the nearby 257 space multi-storey car park at Peel House to build its new, streamlined headquarters.

However a council spokesperson confirmed that a third party was now negotiating with the owners of Premier House, with a view to purchasing the property out from under the council’s nose.

The council still intents to vacate its current Station Road lodgings as they are too large and out of date, and relocate to the car park site.

The spokesperson said: "The civic centre will move to Wealdstone - it is not in jeopardy. We cannot comment on third party negotiations."

No-one from Premier House was available for comment.

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Announcing the plans last year, then council leader David Perry said: “We have land in the heart of Harrow that simply is not pulling its weight – it’s not providing the maximum value to our residents.

“We have to change. That is why we are putting forward robust proposals to leave our costly and outdated civic centre to build a much smaller and more efficient office in the heart of Wealdstone.”

Chief executive Michael Lockwood added: “With the cuts faced by every council, local government is changing all around the country. Harrow Council is becoming a small and more agile organisation that demonstrates value for money, adaptability and efficiency.

“It is right that Wealdstone should be our destination – there is no place more fitting for us to see our future. Moving our office will inject millions into the Wealdstone economy, create new homes and jobs, and importantly boost local businesses and shops.”

Under the council’s “building a better Harrow” regeneration project – which aims to deliver 3,000 jobs, 5,500 new houses and billions of pounds worth of investment over the coming years – its current headquarters would be transformed into a new community with homes, schools, public spaces and community facilities.

Despite the latest setback, the council believes it could break ground at its new site as soon as next year, and potentially be situated in Wealdstone as early as 2019.

The council promised taxpayers would not foot the bill for the move, but no timescale was given on recouping funds spent.

Cllr Perry commented: “We are absolutely delighted that there will be zero cost for all this to the council tax payers of Harrow.

“In fact, our plans show that our regeneration programme will return a surplus to the taxpayers running into the millions of pounds.”

The new plans are estimated to net the council £8.8m from the Greater London Authority’s regeneration incentive scheme.