Trowbridge's Civic Hall revamp bill rockets to £5m (From Wiltshire Times)

Trowbridge's Civic Hall revamp bill rockets to £5m

4:20pm Friday 3rd July 2009

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Trowbridge Town Council is pressing ahead with plans to redevelop the Civic Hall despite the costs for the project now having risen from an initial £2 million to nearly £5 million.

The total projected cost for the project, which would see all but the main Lansdown Hall demolished and a new two-storey building created around it, providing offices for the town council, the Tourist Information Centre and improvements to the venue and function suite, is now £4.9 million. The council plans to borrow the full amount for the build in the form of a 50-year loan, using £422,000 from the Civic Buildings Fund for fees.

At a meeting on Tuesday, councillors voted to submit a planning application, carry out a full public consultation at the West Wilts Show detailing the plans, costs and business plan and voted not to move to any further until they had received feedback from the public. Councillors heard concerns from groups, including the West Wilts U3A, who use the Civic Hall, who outlined their anxieties about the hall being closed for at least 12 months while the work went on.

Town clerk Lance Allen said: “We will be going ahead with a planning application in the next couple of weeks. The reason for the cost increasing are additions that we have put into the building and the methods of construction that will be used. We need to demolish the existing building and relay the foundations.

“All of our forecasting shows that over the 20 years it will cost on average 8p per week for the average Band D household in the town.

“We have only been able to get more accurate costings as we go through the design process and it’s not until the last couple of weeks that we’ve had more accurate costings.”

Mayor Jeff Osborn said: “We are still looking at cutting the costs back further. There is generally a feeling that we have just got to get on with it – it’s showing a committment to Trowbridge.”

But Cllr Graham Payne, who did not attend the meeting, said: “This whole project has more than doubled in cost in six weeks. If they are minded to continue with this grandiose scheme another town meeting or a referendum should be called.”

Len Haysom, chairman of the West Wilts U3A, which uses the hall, said: “I am concerned because we use the Civic Hall for monthly meetings, as we have outgrown all the other halls in the area.

“I asked what provisions were being made for clubs while the hall was closed and nothing was said other than ‘I’m sure we will be able to provide you with somewhere’.

“The Longfield Hall was suggested but we have used it once before and there just isn’t enough room and there are no amplification facilities.

“They are saying the Civic Hall will close for 12 months but they are planning for it to be closed for up to 14 months. If we couldn’t find another venue that was so central and convenient for our members then I think it would threaten our membership levels.”

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