A leisure revolution is set for Billericay High Street after developers announced plans to transform some of the area's oldest and best-loved buildings.

The old town hall, surrounded by mystery and rumour since it was put on the open market last year, is to be thoroughly refurbished and turned into an upmarket restaurant.

Plans to turn the Co-op store into a pub, revealed in the Gazette earlier this year, also look set to go ahead as negotiations over its sale near completion.

Developers Lakevale have applied to Basildon Council for permission to spend half a million pounds renovating the dilapidated town hall, which has stood empty for 20 years, and already has a number of possible tenants lined up.

Lakevale spokesman Colin Sullivan said: ''The building has a beautiful facade and our aim is to restore it to how it used to be. The feedback we are getting suggests that most people think it's a good idea.''

Peter Strong of Billericay-based architects John Strong and Partners, who will design the town hall's new look, said: "Our intentions are to tidy up and refurbish this rather nice old building which has been left to rack and ruin.

It will not be the first time that the building has changed its role. Since it was built in 1830, it has served as a market house, a school, a courtroom, a police station, a civil defence post and as the council chamber of the Billericay Urban District Council.

Meanwhile, national leisure group JD Wetherspoon revealed it has exchanged contracts with the Chelmsford Star Co-operative Society for the Co-op site at 39 High Street and hopes to open its new pub next year.

But Tony Gudgeon, chief executive of Chelmsford Star Co-operative Society, is remaining tight-lipped about the deal until it is given the final go-ahead:

"Our board of directors meets today and will be discussing the proposal. I have nothing more to say until then."

If agreed, the sale will mark the end of the co-operative movement's 80 year association with Billericay.

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