Cannock ballroom granted new lease of life as wedding reception venue
A civic centre ballroom will be given a new lease of life as a venue for wedding receptions under new plans to bring in money by Cannock Chase Council.
It was revealed last week that Cannock's registrars service will be moving to the council's civic centre in the coming months.
Now council chiefs say they are considering spending cash on the ballroom so wedding reception parties can be held 'in-house' after the ceremonies take place.
The ballroom, which has a bar and can hold 450 people, has only been used for meetings in recent years.
The council is looking to move more services into the civic centre in a bid to save thousands of pounds.
The authority needs to cut £578,000 from its budget by 2018.
Council leader George Adamson said: "We are in discussions at the moment over the ballroom. It has been kept empty for a number of years.
"The registrars office is definitely moving in. If there is demand then the ballroom will be used for receptions as well," he said.
"We will have to find the money to spend on doing it up. We are trying to maximise the use of our building.
"It will bring in more services into one place. Hopefully it should be a win-win situation," said Councillor Adamson.
He added that money will be spent on the main entrance – not the public one – in anticipation of couples arriving at the site who are about to tie the knot. Other services confirmed to be moving into the civic centre include the issuing of disabled badges.
The move will see Staffordshire County Council pay an annual fee of £5,000.
Eleven members of staff from Cannock Chase Clinical Commissioning Group will also be moving into the civic centre with the organisation paying £4,392 rent and service charges of £8,500 a year.
The county council wants to refurbish the Jack Holsten Room at a cost of £27,000 to provide register office marriages at the district council base.
The district council will receive £4,643 annual rent from the county council and a service charge of £3,907 every year.
The authority is yet to set its budget for 2015-16, but has agreed to freeze council tax for everyone and also rent for those living in council-owned homes across Cannock.
Discussions had been ongoing for some time with Staffordshire Police over moving front line services into the ballroom, but the idea was dropped, council bosses said.
Also Staffordshire County Council's independent futures service, which has 20 staff, has moved into the civic centre building.
