Extra cash for Hereford's Shirehall

Three million pounds is to be spent getting Hereford’s Shirehall up and running again.

The prominent grade II* listed building in the city’s St Peter’s Square used to house two courtrooms and a custody suite as well as the Assembly Hall music venue, but has been largely out of use since part of its roof collapsed three years ago.

In a review of its capital spending set to gain cabinet approval this Thursday (October 5), Herefordshire Council said the sum, to be spent in the next financial year, would “fund the minimum works required to get the building open and operational again”.

This is on top of the roughly £1.2 million still to be spent on the building from earlier agreed capital budgets, a report for this week’s meeting explained. Underspends from other council capital projects are also to be reallocated to fund works at Shirehall, it adds.

This investment is also separate to a further £3 million, largely from a central Government funding package for the city, earmarked to potentially turn part of the building into a new library and learning centre – a plan originally intended for the city’s Maylord Orchards shopping centre.

The Conservative administration now favours the Shirehall option, but will make a final decision between the two later this month.

A further £100,000 will also go on creating a “care leavers base” within an annex of the building, to be spent this financial year.

The previous Herefordshire Council administration decided last November not to pursue funding the building’s restoration, given other funding pressures.

A report at the time identified “extensive defects throughout” the Shirehall building, along with accessibility issues, requiring a further £6.3 million to put right.