A TOWN councillor is inviting residents to contact him with queries and views on a proposed £13m refurbishment of the Petersfield Town Council-owned Festival Hall as part of an ongoing consultation.
Cllr John Lees said: “Last year’s public consultation about proposals for a major refurbishment of the hall has been described as the largest public consultation ever undertaken in the town.
“And through it we were able to secure the opinions of many hundreds of residents with an overwhelming 90 per cent in support for the plans.
“As a result, a detailed report has been compiled and put on the town council website.
“But this is not the end of the public consultation.
“The council will continue to interact and communicate with residents so they are kept informed as to progress of the plans and the ongoing work with architects and engineers.
“And, most importantly, what the refurbishment will cost and how we will raise the necessary funds.”
The council says it is hoping the project will be funded through developers’ contributions and grants, but borrowing from the Public Works Loans Board hasn’t been ruled out.
The Festival Hall, now incorporating the town hall, was built in the late 1930s as the home to Petersfield Music Festival.
The festival, founded in 1901 by Petersfield residents Dr Harry Roberts and Marie Brahms, is still going strong.
And in the 1980s a flat-roof kitchen extension was added to the hall.
But in recent years the flat roof has started leaking, allowing water to cascade into the building, damaging it and dangerously affecting the electrics.
Proposed repairs to the roof morphed into wider plans to refurbish the entire hall to make it energy efficient and environmentally friendly at an estimated cost so far of about £13m.
n Cllr Lees can be emailed at [email protected]
n For details on the plans see the website at https://www. petersfield-tc.gov.uk/