Ashton Town Hall set for facelift
Tameside Council has awarded a £2.8m design-and-build contract to Inspired Spaces Tameside to repair the historic structure’s parapet and stonework.
The repair contract for Ashton Town Hall follows a series of surveys undertaken over the past six months by Robertson. The surveys have shown a need to replace the building’s roof and also highlighted the need to fix up the façade on the southern and eastern sides of the hall.
Funds for the £2.8m job will come from Tameside’s successful Levelling Up Fund bid, which allocated £3.4m for the restoration of the town hall.
Work on the repairs is expected to begin in May, with a target completion date of December. This would mean the town hall would reopen around the same time as work would complete on the council’s £11m revamp of Ashton Market Square, according to a council report.
A full interior restoration will take more time – and more money – to complete. The surveys showed that fixing up all three floors of the building would cost more than £15m. To help cut costs, the council is considering mothballing the town hall’s lower ground and second floors for the time being.
“There is much more work needed to restore the building to its former glory and significant investment will be needed,” said a Tameside Council spokesperson.
“The Levelling Up [Fund] money being used will help restore the impressive façade of the building and keep it safe until other funding can be found to continue the work to on the roof and bring it back into use.”
Ashton Town Hall first opened in 1840, receiving an extension in 1878. The hall was closed in May 2015, with the council taking its operations over to Dukinfield Town Hall. Other civic activities have moved on to Tameside One.
Tameside’s plans for a restored Ashton Town Hall had been initially drawn up by Ryder Architecture. You can learn more about those proposals for Ashton Town Hall by searching application number 23/00640/LBC on the council’s planning portal.
Meanwhile tameside council ate looking down the back of the sofa for its budget for the rest of its towns
By Anonymous
Are you sure it will reopen after the planned works? It hasn’t been open since 2015 and I can’t see where it says it will reopen in the report.
By Anonymous