Oswaldtwistle Civic Arts Centre repairs to begin in summer

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Monday, 31 March 2025 15:02

By Bill Jacobs

Work on repairing the roof of Oswaldtwistle Civic Arts Centre and Theatre will start in June with a scheduled completion date of October.

The news was given to Hyndburn’s Full Council meeting on Thursday by its leader Cllr Munsif Dad.

He also revealed that the authority had been given a new grant of £10,000 towards the remedial works at the building in Union Road which closed in in July 2023 after the charity managing the theatre, went into liquidation.

Cllr Dad was responding to a public question from Sarah Calderbank on behalf of Friends of the Civic Committee.

It said: “The Friends of the Civic were pleased to hear at the last full council meeting that there is a definite commitment to reopening the Civic.

“We think that it is really positive that a further £250,000 has been added to the £257,000 which was carried over from the previous financial year.

“This £500,000 plus will help to make a good start on the necessary renovations.

“The committee, and the wider public group, would like to ask what the plans are, in terms of what that budget will be spent on and what the timeline will be for spending it, with particular reference to when the building will be made water tight, as this is a matter of urgency to prevent further damage, decay and expense.?”

Cllr Dad replied: “We have appointed a company to arrange specialist detailed timber and structural surveys for the rood and these surveys will start on April 1.

“The same company will use the information from these surveys to develop a specification of works and then procure a contractor to carry out the remedial works.

“We anticipate a start of the works late June (subject to costs being within the budget and the weather) and completion in October (subject to weather and any additional works that may be uncovered).

The costs of the surveys and project management will paid using the £10,000 offered by the Resilient Theatres: Resilient Communities Grants Round which I am currently in the process of accepting following cabinet’s approval.

“We have also recently completed some dry rot works and aim to put in some dehumidifiers to help remove moisture from the property – a risk of long-term voids.

“We will keep and eye on this and deal with as you can’t ignore dry rot.”