Westmorland and Furness Council is looking to spend around half a million pounds on consultants to help deliver its plans to turn Penrith Town Hall into a new Creative and Community Hub — despite the council warning residents it faces a £43 million funding shortfall over the next three years.
A new tender published by the council is seeking a
multi-disciplinary consultancy team to take the £5.74 million Town Hall project
through its design, planning, construction and handover stages.
The consultancy contract itself is worth around £504,000.
But while the council is putting the contract out to tender
now, the project timetable means the finished Town Hall is not expected to be
handed over until October 2028 — more than a year after the May 2027 local
elections.
That means whichever councillors are elected next May will
inherit a project already committed to, with the new council potentially left
to see the scheme through to completion. An issue that faced by the current Westmorland
and Furness council admiration having inherited the £8.5 million Voreda House
project from the last admiration at Eden District Council in 2023.
The tender requires consultants to take the project through
the full RIBA design and construction process, including detailed design,
planning and listed building consent, tendering for construction work,
overseeing the building work and finally handing the completed building back to
the council.
The tender says the consultants should aim to complete the
developed design by February 2027 and technical design by August 2027, with
project handover and close-out scheduled for 16 October 2028.
The estimated £5.74 million scheme cost includes the
consultancy commission, capital works, other fees, surveys and risk, according
to the council's tender documents.
The project would see the Grade II listed Penrith Town Hall
transformed into a Creative and Community Hub, with proposed uses including
performance and event space, exhibitions, rehearsal areas, creative workshops,
a café and community facilities.
The plans also include bringing the Penrith and Eden Museum
into the building.
The council says the project has been developed following
community engagement, with its consultation receiving 456 online survey
responses and 80 face-to-face conversations.
But the timing of the latest tender comes as the council
itself is warning about the scale of its financial problems including the risk
of the local government equivalent of bankruptcy.
In February, Westmorland and Furness Council said Government
funding reductions would leave it facing a £12 million shortfall in the next
financial year, rising to £43 million by 2028/29.
Councillors subsequently approved a 4.99 per cent Council
Tax increase, a £60 annual charge for garden waste collections and increases to
a number of other fees and charges. The council also said it was making around
£5 million of workforce savings.
The council argues the Town Hall project is supported by
external regeneration funding and forms part of the wider Inspiring Eden
programme.
The Town Hall scheme is intended to provide a new home for arts, cultural and community activity in the centre of Penrith, while preserving the historic building and incorporating the museum.
The successful consultants appointed by the council to deliver the tender will be expected to provide architects,
museum designers, interior designers, structural and mechanical and electrical
specialists, quantity surveying and cost consultancy, planning, health and
safety, sustainability, community engagement and commercial and operational
expertise.
Once construction begins, the consultants will also be
expected to act in key project management and supervisory roles. The specification
assumes a 12-month construction period and requires a minimum of two site
visits every week during construction.
The council's timetable for the town hall transformation
stretches well beyond the next local government elections.
By the time voters go to the polls in May 2027, the council
expects to have appointed the consultants, completed the developed design and
be working towards the technical design and construction phase with the completion
and handover of the town hall not scheduled until October 2028.
Then select "Add to Home Screen"
