Secretary of state to consider Shirehall repair plans

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Wednesday, 2 October 2019 20:37

By Carmelo Garcia - Local Democracy Reporter

© Copyright Stephen Richards and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

County planners have referred a controversial scheme for repair work on Hereford’s Shirehall to the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.

Work to replace defective lath and plaster ceilings at the Clerk to the Justices in the neoclassical style grade II* began without listed building consent to do so.
Councillors considering the proposals said the ceiling collapsed while dancing and wassailing was underway in the council chamber in February.

Applicant Robert Scott, property services officer, sought specialist advice from the principal building conservation officer and Historic England before carrying out initial works on the St Peter’s Square hall, according to council documents.

Officers said the part retrospective nature of the application was unfortunate but that the works were considered acceptable by specialist advisers.

Speaking at the planning committee meeting on September 18, officer Simon Withers said the council was acutely aware of the scrutiny given to the retrospective nature of this application.

“There have been numbers of exchanges between the ward councillor and the property services team,” he said.

“However, focusing on the heritage implications of these works, they are considered to appropriately address a safety issue in a manner that would cause less than significant harm to this grade II* listed building.

“In this case, that harm is considered to be outweighed by the benefits of bringing this part back into safe and beneficial use.”

Ward councillor Jeremy Milln said the situation was more than simply unfortunate.

“We are here in Herefordshire’s premier civic space,” he said.

“This is a building by Sir Robert Smirk who has a national standing as an architect.

“We need to demonstrate by example. We cannot expect others who care for listed buildings in this county to do so in an exemplary manner unless we are prepared to do so ourselves.

“What occurred is an offence. We, as an authority, committed an offence under the listed buildings and conservation areas act 1990, Section 7 for which the extenuating circumstances under Section 9 do not apply.

“They are mostly around health and safety.

“Now we did have a collapse of some plaster in February. All we needed to do to safeguard public health and safety was to close that part of the building which is what took place.

“And in an orderly manner carry out the process of applying for listed building consent. This is not what happened.

“The plaster ceilings were summarily removed with no formal record.”

Councillor Paul Rone said it was a confusing way to go about the plans.

“I can only imagine what would happen to a private individual or a developer if they were to carry out the same works, if they encountered the same problems, and took the same route,” he said.

“I would imagine the great weight of the council would be upon them, bearing in mind quite recently we did threaten legal action against someone for using a non-breathable paint on a listed building and the works were stopped.

“Reading a lot of this content there is almost a double standard. But as I said, it’s Hobson’s choice and the sooner this building is put back into use the better.”

A proposal to recommend the secretary of state should approve the plans was unanimously supported by the planning committee.

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