North Wiltshire District Council's flagship new offices in Monkton Park consume more power than the old ones despite a modern design and an environmental accolade.

The district council acknowledged its important role in helping energy efficiency in North Wiltshire when it drew up an Energy Policy in February 1999 with a target of reducing energy consumption within its buildings by 20 per cent within five years.

But recent figures show quite the opposite has happened. At a meeting of the full council on Tuesday members learned total energy consumption has actually increased by one per cent.

Afterwards Coun Toby Sturgis said: "We were told the new offices would bring us enormous savings and that hasn't happened.

"It's taken me six months to get these figures and now I am not surprised at the delay.

"It is not satisfactory and I want to know what it is costing the tax payer."

Coun Sturgis said he would be pursuing the matter further and wanted to find out why energy consumption had increased.

A report of the district council blames the higher dependence on IT equipment, which has much higher power requirements than five years ago, and suggested this dependence would increase further.

The inclusion of on-site catering was also a factor, the report said.

While current consumption is higher for autumn, summer and spring from May 2003 to May 2004, the winter quarter costs are lower than previous years because of the improved insulation and better heating systems in the new building.

After the meeting Coun Ross Henning blamed increased reliance on IT for the higher energy usage but highlighted savings in the energy previously consumed when people had to move from one office to another around the town under the old arrangements.

"We also have a much better working environment in the new offices than when we had lots of little offices scattered all over the place," he said.

But Coun Ron MacGregor admitted the rise was disappointing.

"We shall have to investigate and see why this is," he said. "We had hoped there would be a saving."