Loanhead Town Hall is to be demolished after Midlothian councillors voted 11-7 this week to press ahead with the controversial plan.
News emerged earlier this month of the plans to bulldoze the community hub – agreed in private by the council – and stunned the community.
Labour parliamentarians David Hamilton MP and Rhona Brankin MSP were also critical of the move.
The decis
ion was 'called in' by the local authority's internal watchdog, the Performance, Scrutiny and Audit Committee and referred back to the Cabinet and then the full council on Tuesday.
The scrutiny committee had recommended that the cabinet reconsider the decision and continued discussions with the community over the possibility of the town hall being taken over as a community facility.
The council has always maintained that the demolition decision was taken in private due to reasons of commercial confidentiality.
It insists the plans will only go ahead if current hall users can be accommodated elsewhere.
News of the secret decision to demolish the town hall has also sparked angry comments - read them
here.
See next week's Advertiser for full report and reaction.