YATE could become home to South Gloucestershire Council's third major administration centre.

The town is being targeted for the next hubbub of offices for council officers and staff, although the building is not expected to be completed for at least five years.

In this year's proposed budget, however, the council hopes to spend £400,000 on a rationalisation process to centralise offices at existing centres in Kingswood and Thornbury and begin plans to build in Yate.

The council wants to provide more effective and efficient services by centralising departments.

Where planning applications are currently separated into east and west sections of South Gloucestershire, under the council's plans, they would all be dealt with at one centre.

The council believes it will, in future years, reduce overhead costs and improve its services. Leader of the council, Cllr Neil Halsall, said: "We ought to be ashamed of ourselves for having staff still working from some of our old offices. At some, there are still bars on the windows."

He added that, in the long-term, the plans would benefit residents.

He said: "Once we have taken away some of those constraints and restraints of working conditions, we will have more effective working."

The proposed service improvements in the council's 2005/06 budget are currently under scrutiny by the public. A decision on whether the £400,000 for office accommodation will be included in the budget will be made on February 23.