Plans to refurb Bury Town Hall to 'develop single service hub'

Last year a "cross party working group" was set up by the council to look at the building's future and an online survey found that most people were in favour of renovation proposals and to preserve the site's historical features.

A report from the group was presented to the local authority's cabinet in February this year, which "concluded that continuing to operate out of the town hall without a comprehensive refurbishment has significant financial and operational risks given the current condition of the premises".

A council report, prepared for the next cabinet meeting on Wednesday, April 19, said: "The current town hall environment offers a very poor working environment for staff.

"Neighbouring authorities offer similar salaries and benefits but in the case of Bolton, Rochdale and Manchester all offer the opportunity to work in a modern and attractive refurbished or new-built office."

The report added: "The proposals for the refurbishment of the town hall create the opportunity to develop a single service hub for council services, the challenge of laying and redesigning building to enable better provision of public services will sit with the selected architects."

Bury Town Hall (Image: Public)

After considering the council's "wider administrative estate, in particular the blocks at 3 and 6 Knowsley Place", a preferred option to carry out a "phased refurbishment" of the town hall was agreed by the cabinet.

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The plans also include Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust taking over the lease at 3 Knowsley Place to allow staff to work there.

And social housing firm Six Town Housing, based at 6 Knowsley Place, are set to use two floors of that site rather than all four going forward. 

The report said: "This proposal will create higher quality office space in the town hall.

"It will also allow for a phased decant of staff from 3 Knowsley Place timed to align with the availability of newly refurbished space in the town hall.

"The council currently has leases in place for 3 and 6 Knowsley Place. 3 Knowsley Place is the larger of the two buildings and is currently occupied by council staff.

"The building is not fully utilised at present and a proposal has been received from Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust to take over the lease of 3KP from the council.

"This would allow Pennine Care to vacate Humphrey House, and over time, to transfer staff from other locations into 3 Knowsley Place.

"Six Town Housing have recently indicated they could operate out of two instead of all four floors of 6 Knowsley Place.

"The capital investment needed to refurbish the town hall will be supported by revenue funding released by withdrawing from the commercial leases for 3 and 6 Knowsley Place.

"This represents the optimum way forward financially, environmentally and for staff productivity."

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The report said transfer of the lease on 3 Knowsley Place will see Pennine Care "take over the ground floor and floors 1 and 2 from 2024 with works starting at the end of 2023".

It added: "Pennine Care will lease floors 3 and 4 of 3 Knowsley Place back to the council for a period of four years, at which time they will be able to transfer additional staff into the building.

"To mitigate the risk that the refurbishment of the town hall has not progressed sufficiently to accommodate staff from levels 3 and 4 in four years time, 6 Knowsley Place will be retained for as long as necessary, and the phasing of the refurbishment will be prioritised to provide accommodation for staff from floors 3 and 4.

"In addition Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust have indicated that they can provide some flexibility in timing.

"If the costs of the phased refurbishment exceed the available budget it will be possible to phase the refurbishment works to suit the available budget by selecting only certain areas of the building for refurbishment."

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The current cost of occupying 3 Knowsley Place amounts to £1.028m a year. 

While there will be an ongoing cost to occupy the 3rd and 4th floors, there will be a "significant revenue saving" for the council.

The refurbishment is part of the council's plans to reduce its carbon footprint and avoiding high energy bills.

It is viewed that the "consolidation of staff and services into one building will help achieve this objective".

The plans are set to be signed off by Pennine Care and the cabinet to allow predevelopment work to progress.

A "full financial case" of the refurbishment is then due to be presented to the cabinet in the summer.