Planned repairs to the roof of Stalybridge Civic Hall aimed at bringing the building back into everyday use have been pushed into next year.
Tameside chiefs are seeking £1 million in levelling up cash to help fund the restoration of the historic building. A recent council report has revealed that repairs to the roof have been delayed until 2023 to allow the building to be used for events linked to the Town of Culture programme.
The long-awaited work to the roof will support bringing the iconic building back into regular use, with the council having already commissioned studies exploring the possibility of turning it into a food hall.
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Last year it was confirmed that the bill for the works on the roof had already more than tripled from the initial budget of £558,950, up to £1.7m.
However a monitoring report states that the ‘rising cost of construction inflation’ and ‘specific requests made by Historic England’ means that it is ‘inevitable that costs will increase above the available budget’. Consequently the town hall has sought a £1m contribution to the Civic Hall restoration project from its £20m Levelling Up fund bid for Stalybridge.
The results of the bid are expected to be announced this autumn. If the authority is not successful in winning Levelling Up funding then it says it will continue to explore ‘alternative funding opportunities’.
The report to the strategic planning and capital monitoring panel states that the roof of the Civic Hall was constructed with Welsh slate but many of the slates are now damaged beyond re-use, and need to be replaced. However due to ‘exceptional demand’ for Welsh slate, there is currently a ‘minimum’ 33 week lead time for delivery.
Consequently the council has spent £150k placing an order for the material now in advance of the work being finished.
It states that any oversupply will be used across other council-owned buildings, and it will keep down costs in the future.
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