As bosses at Hertfordshire County Council take action to prevent a £20.9m overspend, the Local Democracy Reporting Service has learned the council has made hundreds of thousands of pounds from film and tv companies.

Since May 2022, various parts of County Hall have been used as filming locations by 19 different production companies.

The latest crew to use the landmark building arrived on site in September – with council staff told that filming on the site is set to continue until November 22.

The council is contractually bound not to discuss the productions that are being – or have been – filmed there.

But officials have revealed to the LDRS that, so far, productions using county council sites have brought in income of around £375,000 – that's being used to support council services.

"We are always looking at how we can best utilise our assets to generate income," said a spokesperson for the county council.

"And since May 2022, the council has raised additional income by renting out various council-owned locations across the county for filming.

"Over the period, 19 bookings have been received from a variety of well-known production and streaming services, but due to commercial sensitivity we are unable to provide further details.

"Not only does the use of assets for commercial purposes allow us to generate income to help deliver services to our residents, it supports the economic growth of the film industry in Hertfordshire."

Before the pandemic County Hall was a bustling workplace for around 2,000 county council staff.

But with so many staff now spending at least part of their weeks working from home, in 2023 councillors determined that the building was 'surplus to requirements'.

Since then the vast majority of county council staff have been moved to the the council's Stevenage offices.

The county council plans to retain the 'front' part of County Hall, for democratic and civic purposes.

But since the decision to move staff was taken, the remainder of the site has been actively marketed for employment use.