Just shy of £60,000 has been spent by the council securing an empty property.

Since it bought the former Junior School site in St John's Road, Epping from Essex County Council, Epping Forest District Council has forked out £59,329 protecting it.

Of that money, £42,979 was paid to Mitie Security from December 2016 to August 2017 and £16,350 to TSS Security following that period.

Despite a consultation with residents and a development brief being published in 2012 for the former school and land nearby, the site has remained empty.

Last month Cllr Anne Grigg, the district council's assets and economic development portfolio holder, suggested plans to convert the empty buildings into a complex including cinema, restaurant and Waitrose would take at least 27 months to complete.

This means the site will have been unoccupied and without a function for more than ten years.

In the council's term of ownership it has received one request for temporary use from a film company to shoot on location, but that eventually came to nothing.

The council did not respond to a request for comment.