CASH from the sale of a £1million townhouse could pay for Colchester’s Roman Circus visitor centre, the town’s culture spokesman suggested.

Essex County Council is looking to put 12 Lexden Road on the market, and has given tenant Colchester Archaeological Trust until next year to find alternative premises.

The trust is trying to get a mortgage to buy part of the Victorian Sergeants’ Mess, next to the starting gates of the recently-discovered circus, to use as a replacement headquarters.

The plan is to win lottery funding to turn part of the building into a Roman Circus visitor attraction with the trust’s offices upstairs, but the scheme will fail unless an investor buys the other half of the building for £400,000 from developer Taylor Wimpey.

Receipts from offloading 12 Lexden Road – a detached former Victorian home in one of Colchester’s most desirable areas – would easily provide the funds required.

Paul Smith, Colchester’s councillor responsible for culture and heritage, said: “It would be nice if Essex County Council used the money from selling a Colchester asset to invest in a project that would benefit the town, and which everyone supports.

“There have been a whole string of examples where the county council has been less than co-operative about spending money in Colchester, and this would be a great chance for it to make amends.”

However, the idea got a lukewarm response from county council heritage and culture spokesman Jeremy Lucas.

He said: “I don’t know whether the county council would be in a position to use the funds for that purpose.

“I wouldn’t make that decision if any such idea were proposed. Like every public body, the council has to make the best use of its assets.

“If there are particular thoughts on ways we might be able to help with the visitor centre – except that one – I am certainly happy to talk to others on the county council about it.”

Trust boss Philip Crummy is concentrating on finding a private investor to put money into the Sergeants’ Mess, and has stressed he is grateful to the council for extending the organisation’s lease on Lexden Road.

However, there is a recent precedent for using money from the sale of Colchester buildings to invest in a major town project.

When Grey Friars College, in High Street, was sold, the expected receipts were set against the cost of refurbishing Wilson Marriage adult education centre, in Barrack Street.