PEMBROKESHIRE County Council will have to fork out almost £250,000 in ‘empty property tax’ this year, the Western Telegraph can reveal.

Between 2012 and 2017, business rates on more than 40 empty council-owned buildings will have cost the authority £922,501, a Freedom of Information (FOI) request by this paper has shown.

Among the biggest bills is the £163,836 spent on the former library in Dew Street, Haverfordwest, which has been empty since 2013.

Nine empty growth units at the Cleddau Bridge Business Park in Pembroke Dock – some of which have been empty since 2007 - have cost the council a total of £253,992, with the most expensive unit soaking up more than £51,000 from the local budget.

The list of 44 empty properties owned by the council also includes the County Archive Office at Haverfordwest Castle, which has cost £20,000 in the last two years.

And Fishguard’s dilapidated former primary school has run up a bill of more than £40,000 since it was declared empty in 2011.

The Ship and Anchor pub, which was purchased by the county council in 2013 as part of plans to regenerate Fishguard town centre, has since cost the authority £13,697.

It was originally on the market for £285,000, and has been earmarked for demolition as part of plans to introduce a one-way system to the area.

Other substantial sums include £36,814 in payments for the former CP School in Charles Street, Neyland, and a further £15,198 for the neighbouring day centre, empty since 2013.

This cost burden was one of the reasons given by the council’s Cabinet when it voted to put the site up for sale, and there are now plans to build 42 homes on the land.

Since 1996, business properties that are currently lying empty have cost the authority £1,072,869 in empty property rates.

Until 2008, owners of unoccupied non-domestic properties were entitled to a three-month grace period, after which were required to pay 50 per cent of the full business rate.

But this ‘rate relief’ ended after a change in the law, and owners must now pay 100 per cent rates after a building has been empty more than three or six months, depending on whether it is an industrial property.