Changes planned for town centre buildings

WARRINGTON Borough Council is seeking permission from its own planning committee to carry out structural alterations to two of its most important town centre buildings.
If councillors decide they are minded to approve the alterations to the Parr Hall and the Central Library, the final decision will rest with Government because both are Grade 2 Listed buildings and owned by the council.
The plan for the Parr Hall involves removing a section of brick wall and railings at the rear to form a new access to an existing substation and the provision of new, 1.8m high gates.
Planners say the railings to be removed are less decorative than other wrought iron railings on top of the boundary wall, suggesting they may have been added at a later date rather than being part of the original.
The proposals have been sensitively designed, retaining existing brick piers and will not adversely affect the setting of the Parr Hall or the adjoining Technical School building.
At the Library, the proposals involve refurbishment of Gallery 7 and removal of some insensitive additions done in the 1960s/70s to reveal historic features such as a roof lantern and stage.
Overall, the planners believe the changes will enhance the building.
The changes will only slightly alter the building’s external appearance and these changes will not be visible from street level.
If the committee decides to approve the proposals tomorrow (Wednesday), they will be referred to the Secretary of State for final approval.

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7 Comments

council tax payer on 2nd August 2011 12:45 pm 12:45 pm

Are these amendments absolutely necessary or are we again simply spending money that we haven’t got?

Sha on 2nd August 2011 3:58 pm 3:58 pm

AND THE GENERAL PUBLIC GET TO KNOW ABOUT THE PLANS ONLY ONE DAY BEFORE ??? It is usually wily developers who try to sneak through controversial proposals in the month of August – our town council should not be doing this! One would have thought they’d have learnt their lesson re fiddling about with our heritage assets from the Walton Hall & Gardens fiasco! Will they never get to understand the true meaning of DEMOCRACY and CONSULTATION. With Walton Hall &Gardens still under threat and Sankey Valley Park such a prominent issue this could well be the final spark to kick off the revolution! Perhaps it’s about time too! A clean up in the planning department is long overdue, and our councillors should be left in no doubt about theIr place in the scheme of things. THEY are there to do what WE want – and not the other way around! It’s time they got the message loud and clear – GET REAL or GET OUT!

Dizzy on 2nd August 2011 4:06 pm 4:06 pm

The removal of a bit of a wall and railing to make workers (pedestrian) access to the new substation wont cost much at all surely. Seems a bit of overkill to have to ask the Sec or State for permission to remove a little bit of wall as the railings on that section obviously aren’t original anyway you can tell that from just looking and the wall between the pillars looks like it was once open access as that doesn’t match the rest either… not to mention that theres an ugly modern looking extension behine there anyway. As for the library… well really it’s the MUSEUM as gallery 7 is the dismal stuffed bird gallery (I’m sure it has a more official name). I looked at the plans and what the museum is hoping do do looks really good although it is a shame that they can’t have natural light coming in through the large roof lantern as they had hoped but the uv levels would apparently damage the items displayed. Nice that it will be opened up though rather than just being hidden behing the false ceiling. Anyway I hope they get approval for it and they have got first stage funding for it from elsewhere apparently. One thing did confuse me though… WHY are there two identical planning applications with different numbers for each of these application ??

Emanon on 2nd August 2011 5:32 pm 5:32 pm

Because, my Dizzy friend, one is a planning application and the other an application to alter a Listed Building. And the council have no choice but to ask the Secretary of State because it is a Listed Building and the council are the owners. The idea is to make sure owners of historic buildings can’t always have their wicked way!

Inky Pete on 2nd August 2011 8:13 pm 8:13 pm

If an individual councillor has a connection with a property which comes before the planning committee then that councillor will step down while that application is dealt with. So how come the council gets to grant whatever planning consents it decides it wants on it’s own buildings? Surely there is at the very least an appearance of a conflict of interest here?

Dizzy on 2nd August 2011 10:26 pm 10:26 pm

I know that thank your Emanon as I am very aware of the rules for both Listed and Locally listed buildings and also what Englush Heritage and the Secretary of State does (or doesn’t) do…. but I didn’t know it was necesarry to create two identical planning applications with different application numbers just for that purpose. Seems like a bit of a waste of server space and effort uploading them to me … why not just the one for both ? Thanks anyway. I shall say no more before I digress 🙂

Dizzy on 2nd August 2011 10:42 pm 10:42 pm

SHA… Did you actually bother to read the planning applications that have been submitted before typing all that especially the one from Ms Hayes regarding the museum ? I very much doubt anyone would object to the plans for that anyway as it sounds rather good and nothing is being altered that would harm the building…they are just making it better and also incorporating some of the nicer aspects which have been hidden away for years like the sky lantern. I didn’t even know there was one on top of the museum/library did you 😉