POLICE have uncovered a drugs factory in a building owned by Tendring Council.

Officers found about 40 cannabis plants at a property in Waddesdon Road, Dovercourt, which was formerly a Tendring Council cash office.

The council still owns the building which was closed in 2012 and had planned to sell it off last year, along with two others in Clacton and one in Weeley, to save taxpayers’ cash.

A computer and electronics start-up firm was renting the site when the drugs were discovered on October 3.

Winter Warmers, a successful project which helped provide more than 400 vulnerable residents with clothes, shoes and bedding, was based in the building in February and March this year.

Tendring Council spokesman Nigel Brown said: “The property had been marketed in the usual way via a local agent and it is due to go back on the market shortly.

“The council is helping Essex Police in any way possible as they continue their investigation into this matter.”

Two men from Harwich aged 34 and 40 are on bail after being arrested on suspicion of cannabis cultivation.

They are both due to answer bail on Monday, November 10.