Salisbury City Hall future at risk as repairs total £2m

The meeting took place at the Five Rivers Leisure Centre on Thursday, June 15, and the Director of Leisure, Culture and Communities, David Redfern confirmed that it could cost £2m to repair the building. 

It had been hoped that an external company might take on the 61-year-old entertainment venue in Malthouse Lane, but now alternate options need to be considered. 

He said: “The library needs refurbishment too and in terms of the investment in those two areas, we want to have a closer look at the ‘art of the possible’ of providing something, hopefully quite special for the city. We have already had a tentative discussion with the arts council, and they think we are barking up the right tree.”

The City Hall closed as a vaccine centre earlier this year. 

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Cllr Paul Sample said: “I think all of us would agree that the longer the city hall is empty, the worse the condition will become.

“It is a war memorial given to the city to commemorate the war dead and has had a period of several years where it was an extremely successful entertainment venue.

“Covid19 was a massive hit to the entertainment industry and lots of people went under however, we still have the City Hall, I am shocked by the figure of £2 million making it unusual as it is at the moment.

“We have been lucky that we had a permanent tenant in there for the vaccine rollout. Of course, I assume that all the money in respect of this would have been ringfenced against any future costs of the city hall.”

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The Cabinet Member for Public Health, Leisure, Libraries, Facilities Management, and Operational Assets, Ian Blair-Pilling said: “The notion that the money is ringfenced against a particular building does not wash. One of my portfolios is operational assets. We have hundreds of buildings. We would tie ourselves into the most appalling knots of prioritisation.

“What is on the cards here for Salisbury is a much more exciting project potentially. It makes no sense to me to be funding large repair bills on buildings that are frankly very tired. Otherwise, we keep trying to refurbish something and it becomes inordinately expensive.

“It would not future-proof it. We are focused on bringing a long-term solution to Salisbury. We have asked officers to go away and come back with options and I have no idea what those options are yet.”

Author and local history enthusiast Frogg Moody said: “The city hall was built at exactly the same time as the Regal Cinema which is now the Everyman Cinema and they did not find it tired, and it is a credit to Salisbury what has been done there.

“If you are trying to suggest eventually demolishing the city hall, what I can promise you is to be prepared for a fight and I shall be leading it.”