Falkirk Council: People want new town hall to be built sooner rather than later

The council received 369 responses to the consultation, with 173 (47 per cent) agreeing to the acceleration of the demolition and 192 (52 per cent) disagreeing, along with four (one per cent) unanswered responses.

Despite the slim majority of people being against accelerated demolition, a report going to members of Falkirk Council on Thursday is recommending that it should go ahead.

The report states that of the 192 who disagree with the demolition being accelerated, many of them say that is because they believe the town hall should remain open. But that is not an option, the report makes clear.

Councillors have already agreed that the £2 million cost of separating the town hall from the municipal buildings – in order to keep it open until a replacement is built – was just too much.

The report says that 81 of the 192 people disagreeing with the accelerated demolition did so because they wanted the town hall to remain open. The report states: “Whilst these views have been recorded it should be recognised that the actual closure of the Town Hall did not form part of the consultation question.”

Removing those 81 responses means the majority of responses are in favour of quick demolition to clear the site the council report claims.

But the report says all of the responses give a clear message to the council, regardless of whether they agree to the acceleration of the demolition or not. They say the council must have a definitive plan for a new facility; acknowledge the loss of a community resource; be decisive on both the demolition and the new Falkirk Town Hall; and mitigate any negative impact on local businesses and tourism in the interim.

The consultation – a legal requirement as the land belongs to the Common Good account – began after councillors took the decision to close Falkirk Town Hall for the final time. The original plan had been to partially demolish the adjoining municipal buildings and leave the hall at least until a replacement was available.

But disentangling the two buildings was found to be more complex and costly than had been realised and councillors agreed it was not ‘value for money’. The decision meant that the district has been left without a large-scale arts venue while years of planning a replacement for it have, so far, come to nothing.

The SNP administration hopes that the demolition of the town hall puts an end to at least some of the arguments and helps move things along.

As a minority administration, they supported plans to build a new council HQ and arts centre – including a 650-seat theatre – in the heart of Falkirk town centre. But they failed to get the support they needed from either the Labour group or the Conservatives and the project eventually stalled.

But things have changed – the council is no longer proposing to build any new offices and the arts centre is now being referred to as a ‘new town hall’. In the report, the council says it is fully committed to the arts in Falkirk and keen to get things moving as soon as possible.

A “call for sites” was issued in September last year and council officers say they are “currently evaluating these.” They aim to report further to council at the end of March, although this could be subject to negotiations with landowners.