PLANS to carry out intrusive survey works, building monitoring and asbestos removal as part of the redevelopment of Earlestown town hall have been given the green light.

The ongoing project to restore the town hall building forms part of the wider regeneration plans for Earlestown town centre.

With a year-long restoration project on Earlestown Town Hall's exterior completed last year, design work on how best to utilise the historic building has been ongoing.

In previous planning documents, there have been suggestions to create commercial and community spaces, workspaces, a refurbished main hall and stage, and a café with a courtyard garden at the Market Street town hall.

An application seeking listed building consent for the survey works, monitoring and asbestos removal was sent to council planners by the English Cities Fund in December.

The application states: “The Town Hall has been vacant since 2008 and has since been in a deteriorating state both internally and externally due to long-term water ingress and structural movement. The building is considered to be in poor condition.”

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It adds: “Initial external works have been completed under a separate LBC, and there is now a suite of investigative surveys required to determine the condition of some of the internal support elements.

“This will include material sampling as well as installing a small number of crack monitors inside the building to the masonry walls.

“Asbestos removal is required to facilitate the refurbishment and redevelopment of the Town Hall, in order to bring the building back into public use”.

It adds these works will inform “the future conservation and repair of this deteriorating building” and the “design works to bring a vacant building back into public use”.

A report by planning officer Jennifer Bolton recommended approval.

This stated: "The proposed works involve undertaking building surveys to ascertain the condition and sizing regarding the steel beams, lintels, floor slab and the floor at mezzanine level and to provide crack monitoring. The works also involve removal of asbestos."

Permission was granted.