Assets | Knutsford Town Council

20Nov2024

£200k refurbishment agreed for Market Hall

A £200,000 refurbishment of Knutsford Market Hall has been agreed by Knutsford Town Council with work set to commence in January 2025.

The project is being funded through a £160,000 grant from the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund with the balance drawn from the Town Council’s market hall and capital reserves.

The new scheme will involve:

Removal of the suspended ceiling to reveal the sky lights
An upgraded accessible toilet with baby change facilities
Replacement stall structures with shutters
Redecoration including a new level floor
New glass automatic doors with security shutters

The refreshed Market Hall will have an open central space which will host pop-up traders on market days and provide space for events and community activity outside market opening hours to make the building even more of a community asset.

“The refurbishment will deliver a more light, modern and flexible Market Hall with renewed stall structures and fresh facilities. It will help us attract new shoppers, new traders and create a true community asset” said Cllr Bryan Hartley, a member of the Market Hall refurbishment working group.

The Town Council has appointed the local firm Built by Mode as the contractor to deliver the refurbishment.

Works are scheduled to take place across 12 weeks starting in January and the Market Hall will be closed during this period. The Town Council is working with the Market Butcher and Heathfields Fruit and Veg to arrange temporary trading space during the closure, which takes place during a quiet retail period. The Town Council has waived rents for October to December to compensate for the lost trading period in the new year.

“Whilst this isn’t as big a project as we originally wanted to deliver, it will still give the Market Hall a new lease of life and enable us to continue providing a home for small local businesses whilst ensuring the ongoing viability of the asset.” added Cllr April Johnson, who also serves on the working group overseeing the project.

8Apr2022

Council takes ownership of its offices

Knutsford Town Council has taken ownership of its Toft Road offices and the surrounding grounds.

The freehold of the Council Offices, along with its grounds and the library garden, have been gifted to Knutsford Town Council by Cheshire East Council as a community asset transfer. Negotiation between the councils has been ongoing for several years since Cheshire East Council formally approved the transfer in 2018. This is the fourth transfer from the borough council through its community asset transfer programme following public toilets (2013), the Market Hall (2014) and allotments (2015). The Tabley Hill chapel and cemetery and were also taken back under local management in 2016 and 2020 respectively although these had always been owned by the town council.

The Grade II listed Council Offices was built in 1844 as the Prison Governor’s House and was acquired by the Knutsford Urban District Council for £1,000 in 1930 after the prison closed. Following local government reorganisation in 1974 the offices were transferred to Macclesfield Borough Council although the Town Council retained an office and use of the chamber. Since the 1970s the building has also housed a tourist information centre, the offices of the Knutsford Guardian and private businesses.

The Town Council sought the transfer to ensure it retained a long-term low-cost office within the centre of Knutsford. The transfer was subject to a covenant that the building forever be used for the benefit of the local community. Cheshire East Council required the town council to take ownership of the Library Gardens as part of the transfer for the whole site to be managed as one space.

The council’s intention is to undertake a renovation and modernisation of the building to provide improved office and community use accommodation. The council aims to install a lift to make the historic council chamber accessible for council meetings and to subsidise the building through letting office space to tenants. The improvements would expand the number of community organisations and public services which can use the building. A sub-committee of councillors will be exploring options and developing proposals for the council.

Cllr Peter Coan, Chairman of the council’s Assets and Operations Committee said “I am thrilled to see the Council Offices return to local ownership and look forward to developing an improvement scheme for both the grounds and building so they better serve the needs of our community”

Pictured: Cllr Peter Coan and Cllr Stewart Gardiner sign the transfer documents.

29Jun2021

Council creates space for new businesses

New business premises have been created in the town centre by converting previously redundant space in the town’s public toilet buildings.

Knutsford Town Council took ownership of the public toilet buildings at King Street Car Park and the Bus Station in 2013 through an asset transfer from Cheshire East Council. On transfer the council appointed national toilet provider Danfo to create three new cubicles within each larger building which saw the town’s toilets transform from facilities which were frequently the subject of complaints due to the poor condition and maintenance to toilets that have been accredited as Platinum standard in the national Loo of the Year awards.

The creation of the new toilets in 2013 left large areas of redundant space in the buildings which were previously large male and female spaces. Utilising capital funds raised from the sale of the Cemetery Lodge in 2016, the Town Council has converted these spaces into modern glass fronted units designed to accommodate a range of businesses. The conversion works were undertaken between February and May and involved creating new openings to the buildings, installation of individually metered services and heating, insulation and lighting. The units were designed to enable new tenants to quickly move in and decorate the units for their use.

The premises at the King Street car park has been named Lily Lodge with the property at the bus station named Justice View. The properties were advertised for let through local agents Williams Sillitoe and the council is currently agreeing the leases with two new local businesses.

“Our aim with this project was to put empty space into economic use” said Town Clerk, Adam Keppel-Green. “The new units will generate a rental income for the Town Council and will provide a home for two great Knutsford-grown businesses brining more business and more employment into our town centre”.

Top – Cllr Peter Coan, Chairman of the Assets and Operations Committee, at Justice View.
Bottom – Cllr Peter Coan at Lily Lodge

1Nov2019

Council decides not to purchase Marshall House

The opportunity to purchase a landmark building in the Town Centre was considered by the Town Council at two meetings in October. Marshall House, the Victorian former Egerton School on Church Hill, was put up for sale following the collapse of Wright Marshall. At an initial meeting in October councillors decided that it was worth exploring options for the building, recognising it could provide a additional community space and public car parking.

An options paper was prepared in advance of a deadline to submit a bid to purchase the building of the 1^st November. This paper was considered at a special meeting of the town council on Tuesday 29^th October where it was noted that the limited time available meant a fully costed and detailed business case could not be prepared. The options paper explored the idea of purchasing Marshall House to convert it into a Town Hall venue, accommodating the Market Hall and/or Council Offices. One key benefit identified was the opening up a large hall for the community, identified as a need in the Neighbourhood Plan.

It has been anticipated that the purchase price would be in excess of £1.5m and it was concluded that purchasing the building would not provide value for public money. The council accordingly resolved not to submit a bid or explore the options any further.

Town Clerk, Adam Keppel-Green said “The Town Council is always looking for opportunities to improve the facilities and services available to our community, on balance we felt that this would have presented too much risk and been a poor use of public money.

“We look forward to seeing proposals to bring this fantastic building back into active use developed by the new owners in due course”.