Housing association is set to move into the former Greenock Registry Office

Bosses from Oak Tree hope the vacant ex-wedding ceremony venue will be a match made in heaven when they switch from their current High Street HQ in April.

Inverclyde Council moved staff out of the West Stewart Street building in October last year.

It also housed community learning and development staff, Active Schools, community wardens and the anti-social behaviour and community safety teams.

The move will provide the Oak Tree with much-needed additional space, allow bosses to take on two modern apprentices and the building will be opened up to local charitable and voluntary organisations.

Chief executive Nick Jardine said: "We've been here at High Street almost 20 years and it's served us very well but as we have grown and as the association's number of houses increased it's been tight for space here for a while.

"We're hoping to be able to provide broader services from the new front reception when we move and we're consulting with customers about what types of services they would like to see.

"We are very excited about it."

The High Street office has been Oak Tree's base since it was formed in 2001 from the merger of James Watt, Bow Farm and Victoria housing associations.

The organisation is responsible for just under 1,800 properties, including shared ownership homes, and has been identified in the local plan to build 200 new properties over the next few years.

Mr Jardine said: "We've been struggling for space for a while and we wanted to create a couple of modern apprenticeship posts but we literally didn't have the desk space.

"There's money there in the budget for next year to do that so that's another tangible benefit of the move."

"We are also talking to a number of community groups for them to potentially co-locate with us.

"We'll have meeting and interview rooms that these groups need but can't get access to readily."