ONE of the most important buildings in the lives of York residents - the city's register office - is to get a facelift.

Senior councillors will on Tuesday be asked to approve proposals to sell off the registeroffice, in Bootham, to the York Conservation Trust (YCT).

The trust will then extend and improve the ground floor offices before leasing them to City of York Council over the next ten years.

All responsibility for repairs would fall to the YCT. The improvement works

would be carried out during winter, the quietest period for weddings.

Improvements to the building would include the redesign and redecoration of the interior and exterior and include a new marriage room on the ground floor.

Updated: 14:26 Tuesday, June 24, 2003