Westmorland readies for £5.7m Penrith Town Hall overhaul

Abandoning plans for the former Barclays Bank Building on Market Square, the council has chosen to repurpose Levelling Up Funds to transforming the grade two-listed building into a community and events hub instead.

Westmorland and Furness Council has approved an outline business case to convert the 11,200 sq ft Penrith Town Hall from offices into a mixture of event spaces, performance zones, innovation spaces, and more.

The outline business case, developed in conjunction with GC Insight and SLR Consulting, includes proposals for a 100-120 event space, performance venues, youth and creative spaces, innovation spaces, rentable offices, and a café with a community kitchen.

“Penrith Town Hall is a beautiful building with so much to offer the community,” said Cllr Helen Chaffey, cabinet member for communities, customer services, culture, and communications. “We have a wonderful opportunity to create something with real and lasting benefits.”

A full business case for the £5.7m project will be debated in December by the council’s cabinet. This could incorporate the inclusion of Penrith and Eden Museum in the town hall building.

Money for the scheme will come from the Levelling Up Fund award for an Eden enterprise project. This scheme had been inherited by Westmorland and Furness Council from the now-dissolved Eden Council.

The project was to transform the former Barclays building into an enterprise hub, however, the council decided this week that it was not a financial sustainable initiative.

“These are unprecedented times for local government finance, with more pressure than ever before on our budgets,” said council deputy leader Cllr Andrew Jarvis.

“The original enterprise hub concept was strong. But the financial environment has changed and the revenue pressures associated with the Barclays building make the enterprise hub scheme financially unsustainable. Continuing would expose the council to unacceptable financial risk.”