“Eye-watering” amount to fix Town Hall lift
The much-maligned lift has been causing problems for years, and has been out-of-action for the past two weeks, meaning visitors have had to use the service lift at the back of the building instead.
But when Cllr Nick Howells pointed out that it too broke down last week, it has left some serious questions to be answered for the local authority.
Town Clerk, Richard Williams, presented the £15,965 quotation to the Operations and Development Committee meeting this week, and it stunned councillors.
“We have received an eye-wateringly big quote, but we do have the budget,” he explained.
“However, in 3-4 years’ time it (Town Hall) will hopefully be transformed with three new lifts. So, do you want to throw £15k of tax payers’ money at a lift that will be removed in three years? That is the honest question.”
The Town Council is tied to a maintenance contract with the company that installed the lift, which has been a target of discontent for some time.
Cllr Phil Owen said: “It’s ludicrous to spend that sort of money when that lift, all the time I have known it, has never worked terribly well. It’s always been problematic.”
Cllr Howells has urged the council to create an evacuation plan following last week’s issues saying it was “a good exercise” but “thank goodness it was a wake-up exercise and no-one was hurt” after saying six attendees to the weekly Hub were affected.
The committee agreed to defer the issue until September when the Town Council will hear whether it has been successful in its initial round of National Lottery funding to transform the Town Hall. That project is expected to cost in excess of £5million.
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