Wolverhampton Civic Hall revamp ‘back on track’ despite regrets over revamp
Former council leader Roger Lawrence has admitted the Civic Hall revamp should not have started while the venue was still open.
The multi-million pound Civic Hall revamp is back on track and will be delivered on time and on budget.
That was the pledge today from Wolverhampton Council Leader Ian Brookfield, who said it was finally time to “draw a line and move on” with the project which has been beset with problems since it was launched in 2014.
His comments come after former council leader Roger Lawrence admitted the revamp should not have started while the venue was still open.
Councillor Lawrence, who stood down as council leader in May after 15 years, made the admission following an independent examination of the delayed Civic Halls project.
Councillor Lawrence said in hindsight the council should have fully closed the building immediately to allow for detailed surveys and an extensive revamp to be completed sooner.
A refurbishment expected to cost £10.4 million became an almost complete rebuild of the inside at a cost of £38.1m when it emerged initial surveys had failed to reveal the extent of structural damage.
More on the Civic revamp:
The former leader said the authority had been determined to keep the venue open at key times of the year but that, on reflection, it was the wrong choice.
The crunch point came in December 2017 when the council was faced with a choice of whether to carry out a large-scale overhaul which has put the Civic out of action until 2021.
Auditor Grant Thornton said the council was too focused on staying within the £10.4m budget. But it said it was a “complex” project and the authority had “tried to do the right thing”.
Writing in the Express & Star (below), Councillor Brookfield said the council was about to appoint a new firm to complete the work after the collapse of previous contractor Shaylor.
He said the revamped venue would create more than 100 jobs, attract 500,000 visitors a year and “super charge the night time economy”.
Comment: Get behind Civic to hear city roar
As all my family and friends will tell you – I’m a massive music fan. I think it’s in my DNA. I love live music.
There’s nothing like the sound, taste and feel of being at a gig, and some of my earliest memories of moving to Wolverhampton are of seeing some fantastic local bands and comics in the city, writes Wolverhampton Council leader Councillor Ian Brookfield.
I know a lot of you feel the same.
Seeing some of the biggest bands in the world at the Civic will have been like rites of passage. They are special moments that will never leave you.
The Civic Hall is synonymous with us as a city.
It’s an important building not only because it provides fantastic memories but because it has a national and international reputation for attracting some of the biggest names in the business.
As a council we knew we wanted to develop the Civic Hall to sustain it as a top-quality venue, with increased capacity, for future generations. Despite the extensive preparation work the challenge of transforming an 80-year old building highlighted more complexities than we identified.
The council had to re-shape the project to deal with these issues while retaining our ambition for the venue.
Certainly, as the incoming leader of Wolverhampton Council it’s fair to say I’ve had some reservations. However, having taken the emotion out of the project, and looking at the Civic Hall as a business proposition set against our ambitious plans for the city, I’m now fully convinced that we need to draw a line and move on.
And the Civic Hall is back on track.
We’re about to appoint new contractors and we are confident it will be completed on time and on budget.
Together we will deliver a world class venue that our city and our people deserve.
It will super charge our night time economy, create more than 100 quality jobs and will attract around half a million visitors every year.
I don’t need telling that this has been an expensive exercise, but it’s no different to what’s being spent on similar projects in Bristol and Derby and ours is building on a fantastic heritage in a city that’s going places.
Ultimately, I’m a believer that “if you build it they will come”.
It will be more than just bricks and mortar though.
It will feed in to our building blocks for the future, our pride, our status and our ambitions.
Let’s get behind the Civic Hall and hear the city roar.
