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Fresh ideas needed for hall
Didcot's ageing Civic Hall could be bulldozed and rebuilt under moves to bring it up to scratch.
Didcot Town Council wants to make sure the hall, in Britwell Road, provides the best possible facilities for the community. The existing building opened in 1981.
But councillors want to the public to tell them what they think the new hall should be like before any plans are drawn up.
Council leader John Flood said: "It needs a lot of money spent on it, renewing the windows and repairing the roof.
"We're concerned that just doing running repairs will not solve the problems and we'll probably need a better building for the new Didcot anyway, with all the new houses in Great Western Park."
He said the rooms and layout of the building did not meet the needs of its users and the bar and kitchen were too small to cope with large functions.
There was also problems with access to the committee room and lack of sound proofing, he said.
Mr Flood said: "Ideally, we would like a new Civic Hall on the same site, but it depends on what the public want.
"It's very important for the town. The town offices are of course part of the site and we need a large hall for large meetings.
"Cornerstone the town's new arts centre will be competition for the Civic Hall, but it won't be able to hold a large meeting of several hundred people. It's a major project for the council."
Town clerk Dominic Stapleton said: "We're going out to consultation first.
"We want to ask current users and potential users what works and what doesn't work and what they would like to see in the new building.
"We might even look at it becoming a town hall. It doesn't necessarily mean knocking this one down and building a new one, it depends on what the consultation says.
"We have no preconceived ideas - it depends on the feedback of users."
Mr Stapleton said the project would have to be funded externally by a loan, although the council had enough money to fund the public consultation.
2:45pm Monday 21st July 2008
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CommentPosted by: Vic Hartley, Didcot on 2:54pm Tue 22 Jul 08
27 Years old and talk of pulling it down!! Let us hope that more thought goes into a new building.......or do the public pay for another in 25 years time?
27 Years old and talk of pulling it down!! Let us hope that more thought goes into a new building.......or do the public pay for another in 25 years time?
Posted by: Elaine, Didcot on 10:25am Fri 25 Jul 08
Why not extend and improve rather than pulling down in entirety? Use some of the grassed area, but do not touch the already limited parking spaces. Add the sound proofing to the required offices to ensure adequate privacy for meetings? Add an an extension which could include an improved kitchen area/facilties and extra toilet facilties, then the old kitchen area could be utiltised for another purpose, storage etc? Please don't add a new build to our already inflated Council Taxes!
Why not extend and improve rather than pulling down in entirety? Use some of the grassed area, but do not touch the already limited parking spaces. Add the sound proofing to the required offices to ensure adequate privacy for meetings? Add an an extension which could include an improved kitchen area/facilties and extra toilet facilties, then the old kitchen area could be utiltised for another purpose, storage etc? Please don't add a new build to our already inflated Council Taxes!
Posted by: Disgruntled, Didcot on 1:35pm Fri 25 Jul 08
"Cornerstone - the town's new arts centre will be competition for the Civic Hall.... but it won't be able to hold a large meeting of several hundred people." NO, as it only seats around 290 people, not much more than the Civic Hall !!
I thought the whole idea of Cornerstone was to build a venue to attract exciting and vibrant performers to Didcot, which would otherwise be put off by the inadequate size of the Civic Hall.
It seems we have spent a hell of a lot of money on something unfit for purpose and are now being asked for more to make our councillors more comfortable in the Civic Hall.
"Cornerstone - the town's new arts centre will be competition for the Civic Hall.... but it won't be able to hold a large meeting of several hundred people." NO, as it only seats around 290 people, not much more than the Civic Hall !!
I thought the whole idea of Cornerstone was to build a venue to attract exciting and vibrant performers to Didcot, which would otherwise be put off by the inadequate size of the Civic Hall.
It seems we have spent a hell of a lot of money on something unfit for purpose and are now being asked for more to make our councillors more comfortable in the Civic Hall.
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