Detailed plans for council HQ for 1,400 staff win backing

The building, which will be at the centre of a proposed 300m Civic and Cultural Quarter (CCQ) were described as "central to plans to transform the Waterdale area of town".

The five-storey, 157,500sq ft offices will house most of the council's town centre services on one central site and be the base for around 1,400 of the authority's staff.

According to the plans, the building will also include a new council chamber that will overlook a new civic square, and a purpose-built customer service centre on the ground floor.

Dan Needham of Muse Developments, which has been signed up by the council to build the CCQ said: "The granting of planning consent is another major step forward for the scheme.

"This will be a high quality, energy efficient building which will transform this part of Doncaster town centre and the construction phase will create a significant number of welcome jobs.

Draft plans for the CCQ project also show a new public square and a "performance venue". A detailed planning application for Doncaster's new venue should be submitted for consideration in the coming months.

Construction of the new civic offices is expected to start by the end of the year and should take two years to complete. The developments in the first phase should be open for business in early 2013.

Doncaster elected mayor Peter Davies said he would scrap the CCQ in his election manifesto, but was later forced to accept it after discovering legal agreements had been signed.

The CCQ project is supported financially by both the government and the European Union's Regional Development Fund.