Work to refurbish the festival hall will have to be carried out in two phases as more funding is required.
Speaking at an informal meeting of the Parish Council on Wednesday, 3rd June, Ruth Norbury explained that they have a budget of £540,000 to refurbish the Festival Hall but this will only enable them to carry out initial works.
The £540,000 is made up of a £300,000 dowry from Cheshire East, which they put aside to cover structural problems when they gave the building to Alderley Edge Parish Council - it has now been agreed the Parish Council can have that money as soon as possible.
There is also £100,000 from the Alderley Edge Institute Trust Fund and £140,000 in the Parish Council's reserves, which has been set aside for the repair and refurbishment of the festival hall.
Councillor Ruth Norbury explained "That is the budget we have got, we've been looking at this long and hard and it is simply not enough to do what we want with the Festival Hall."
She added "Where we have reached, is that we are doing phase one of works, basically making the building safe, removal of asbestos for example, making it sound - structurally it's not too made but there is still quite a lot of work to do - and dragging it up into the 21st Century for disability access - getting rid of all the changes in levels making it basically one flat ground level with a single first floor block of four offices at the back.
"The new side entrance and toilets are being provided under the medical centre contract, so it's not within that budget. Very important things like replacing the boilers, which are hugely out of date and a drain on running costs, is being undertaken under this. What we want to get to is the stage where in the middle of October this year Ashley will be able to open the building and let it bring income in again."
She continued "It's been an extremely useful community building, the last we have got lets face it.
"We want to do more with it, we want to for example to introduce flexibility in smaller spaces, smaller offices, basically to increase the use for the community and create other income streams to keep the work and building going and to look from that income stream to future benefits.
"So at present we don't have any budget for that. We are going to have to look at that fairly quickly.
"In order to back that up, we have to look at, what wasn't looked at in great depth to date, which is to make a business plan which is usually the first starting point. What do you want to do with the building and how do you justify spending money on it? As it seems we've got to spend money on it, we don't have much choice, but now we need a long term plan so we when we do need to borrow or obtain funding for that capital construction phase two we can justify it."
Heritage Lottery Funding is one of the options the Parish Council will be considering.
Ruth added "We must do phase one and phase two must allow the hall to remain open and we think that we're able to do that, at most it will have to be closed for a few days."
Having been inside the hall this week, Ruth confirmed that the stage is still in place, where you used to come in and go down the stairs is now completely blocked off, as the medical centre will end there, the stairs have been removed along with the raised seating areas down both sides so it is all one level.
The windows have also been opened, which she believes they have been blocked up since it was used as a cinema, so they are currently being knocked out and replaced with double glazing.
The bar will then need to be brought up from the basement to make it accessible.
Comments
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.
There is a very successful venue in Holmfirth in a similar sized venue and we were looking to create something along those lines in Alderley Edge.
http://www.picturedrome.net/
I am also like many others now puzzled as why the whole building was not knocked down . I had presumed there was something about keeping the entrance , but that has all gone .
I understand the new PC has inherited the situation ; but please be careful though not to create a burden rather than asset for the village
One venue that has a lot of similarities with the FH is the Bowden Rooms in Bowden, now a thriving business catering for weddings, music, corporate events and a thriving jazz club. http://thebowdonrooms.co.uk Maybe a look at their model might give some ideas for a business plan.
back in the day there was a proposal to demoish the Hall and re-build.I know this because it was my proposal. The demolition cost was £35,000 and the re-build cost was circa £1.2 million.
It was deemed to be too expensive, back then.
Not only are the finances apparently out of kilter, it seems like the job started before all the planning consents were in place.
Opened originally for the Alderley Music Festival it later operated for many years as the Regal Cinema and Dance Hall. The seats being removed to hold the dances. I understand that this continued from about 1940 to at least the late 60s.