FEARS over the future of Beaconsfield Town Hall have been expressed by councillors who do not want to see the building go.

Members of Beaconsfield Town Council and the Beaconsfield Society are worried the town hall, in Penn Road, could close after South Bucks District Council (SBDC) which rents the hall out to the council has been unable to confirm if it will renew the lease.

Town councillor Bernard Woolf said: "The problem is simply this: the district council owns the place and we are just its tenants.

"We cannot get a straight answer but I would be grateful if they could make up their minds."

The lease runs out in June next year. This week, the town council received a letter from SBDC saying that it going to get a valuer to look at the site.

Mr Woolf fears this could mean the site could be redeveloped.

He said: "I want to see that town hall kept.

"It's a valuable aspect of the town a focal point.

"We do not have another public place in the new town except the library."

The town hall is a regular meeting place for the council and other groups, like the Beaconsfield Society, which also raised concerns on the matter at its annual meeting on Thursday.

The hall is also used as a register office for births, marriages and deaths. A society member said: "It's more imminent that we think. If they close the town hall its something the Beaconsfield Society should campaign against."

Chris Marchant, head of property and contract services at the district council, said: "There's been an exchange of correspondence between us and the town council along the lines of we will have a discussion'.

"The lease expires in June 2007 and we will soon be sitting down with the town council."