Blackburn plans £500,000 safety net for mothballed tower
Completely vacant since April 2024, specialist contractors have now told the council that the 16-storey office block presents a risk to pedestrians wandering nearby.
The former town hall tower block sits above The Mall Blackburn on Church Street within the town centre. Blackburn with Darwen Council holds the underlease for the property for the next 118 years, with mall owner Adhan Group as the landlord.
As part of its lease, the local authority is obligated to keep the tower in good repair.
The tower was built around 1969 and re-clad in the 1990s. It was largely vacated in 2022, with the final facilities management team departing in April last year. Decommissioning work for the building commenced this year.
As part of that decommissioning effort, routine inspections showed that while the structure of the tower itself is sound, the age and condition of the cladding when combined with severe weather conditions presents a safety risk.
Accordingly, the council is looking to engage a specialist contractor to install a full-height debris netting system on the building. The cost of this, combined with the continued maintenance and inspection programmes, would be £500,000.
The council’s executive is due to vote to approve the spend at its meeting tomorrow.
The net could be in place for up to five years, buying the council time to work with Adhan Group on a long-term solution to the building. The tower will be the subject of a future long-term asset management plan, which will be put before Blackburn with Darwen Council’s executive in due course.
Knock it down or take the cladding down. Don’t be messing about with nets for half a million quid, use some common sense.
By Anonymous
No mention of the asbestos?. I guess that drives the costs further, you should talk to Larry Silverstein on how to deal with demolishing the tower.
By Hazi
I agree demolish it. Build something in keeping with he adjacent neo classical building which is superb.
By John
Knock it down don’t waste money after money, after all it’s my money you’re wasting
By Anonymous
Needs Fred Dibnah on the job
By Bob
Anonymous 7:15 pm. It is not your money. Money is created by banks who create money and that money is backed by the Bank of England and the UK government. You may use money but it is never Your Money.
By Anonymous
Knock it down and the mall is like an abandoned ship
By Anonymous
Pls rule out demolition. If renovating and restoring the tower appears too expensive for the council to go forward with, they should, even now, save up so the can afford it, if not done so already.
By Incognito
Take it down to same height as it’s mate next door and rebuild in stone to match the great building next door use common sense the old builds are fantastic compared to the rest of towers thrown up ,and netting is total pathetic idea and waste of money when you have to put scaffolding up to do the job
By Mickey tee
Building was flawed from quite early on, hence the horrible 80s reclad – the tower looked quite different as built – before the tiles started falling off.
Council entirely sensible to do H&S while putting the onus on the freeholder who probably didn’t pay that much for the dead mall beneath.
By Rotringer
Another waste of taxpayers money!
By Anonymous
Omg what a total waste of our council tax.
By Spinky