Latest news with #CivicHall
BBC News
27-05-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Runnymede Borough Council to make £18k eco upgrades to offices
A Surrey council is washing its hands of paper towels in favour of electric hand driers for staff. Runnymede Borough Council will replace 22 hand towel dispensers at its Addlestone Civic Hall site on Station Road, Addlestone, with 18 standard driers to reduce "carbon and costs".Last year the authority spent £12,000 on paper towels but said the £18,000 spend on new driers would save money in the long run. The idea was initially raised in July 2024. Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service , Councillor Isabel Mullins described the move as a "welcome idea from staff" and added that cost savings were "very much there". The existing system was described as producing "large amounts of unrecyclable waste".However, questions have been raised over why the authority was making the changes ahead of its potential dissolution. Devolution plans, which would merge some boroughs and districts within the county to create new unitary authorities, are due to take place in 2027.
BBC News
07-04-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Stalybridge Civic Hall restoration completed
The regeneration of a town's "beautiful" civic hall has been Civic Hall, which was built in 1868, was once home to the town's indoor market but is set to reopen as a centre for festivals and theatre leaking roof has been repaired and its historic Victorian features Leanne Feeley, the executive member for lifelong learning and culture at Tameside Council, said it was the "centrepiece" of the town of the first events will be put on by Manchester's Royal Exchange Theatre, and will include circus skills and dance. Feeley said the civic hall can now move forward as a "versatile space".She added: "We want to make this an exciting building for people to use and be part of."The building will host the Royal Exchange Den Festival throughout May, with workshops, shows, comedy and music, within a tent inside the cultural events in the town include the Tameside Beer Festival and the regular Street Fest in Armentieres Square, which will include food and live music. Work has also been completed on a Historic England Heritage Action Zone in Stalybridge, which has helped to restore the shopfronts on Market included making the road one-way to create room for raised flower beds, and space for tables and chairs on the pavement Brown, the general manager of Ols Bier and More on Market Street, said the pavement licences had made a "big difference"."Last summer, people wanted areas outside to sit and we've found our customer base is a lot more young professionals who've moved into the area." Katie Harrison, who runs Giuseppe's Sicilian Bistro on Market Street, said: "We've been open for just over two years now and its going really well"."Businesses are opening and people are putting more money into the area." The town is also benefitting from £20m of Levelling Up cash, which it is hoped will encourage private sector investment and help build around 500 new will be spent on a new footbridge across the River Tame, landscaping next to the Ashton Canal, and a multi-storey car park close to the railway is also expected to start this year on improved disabled access to the Astley-Cheetham Library and Art Gallery next to the Civic has also taken place on landscaping around the portico of the former Stalybridge Town Hall, which was destroyed by a fire in 1989. The conservation area in the town centre has been on the English Heritage at-risk register since is hoped the restoration programmes will lead to it being removed from the list.
