The body which oversees funding to revamp Hereford’s Shirehall has backed away from supporting the troubled multi-million-pound project.
The Stronger Hereford Board, set up six years ago to bid for and administer a large pot of Government money intended for 15 separate projects in the city, says it is recommending that its further contribution to the project to create a new library and learning centre in the grade II* neo-Classical building should not proceed.
In a downbeat update in August, Herefordshire Council, which owns the building, confirmed it was still expecting that £2.6 million from the Stronger Towns Fund would fund a new library within the early 19th century building, though with a less costly layout in mind.
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The council itself would meanwhile invest £8.5 million in ‘essential structural works’ to stabilise and secure the building, which has lain largely unoccupied since part of its ceiling collapsed six years ago.
But despite substantial design work on it since, the Stronger Hereford Board now says it is ‘concerned about the project’s current viability and lack of assurance of its ability to meet the Government’s funding timetable’.
Spending on all supported projects must be committed by the end of March 2028, less than a year and a half away.
The board has now recommended that £2.34 million previously allocated to the Shirehall library project be reallocated to other eligible projects across Hereford in line with the requirements of the Towns Fund scheme.
However, the board’s statement said it ‘remains open to considering a revised Shirehall library scheme’.
And it added that a similar remaining contribution of £2.32 million towards the refurbishment of Hereford Museum & Art Gallery in Broad Street, which also faces budgetary pressures, ‘is still committed, with progress to be monitored closely’.
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Chair of the Stronger Hereford Board Abigail Appleton said: ‘The board made its recommendation concerning the Shirehall library only after very careful consideration of the current position, risks and timelines we need to meet.’
She added: ‘We remain immensely proud of Stronger Hereford’s track record of delivering projects across the city from Growing Local to the enhanced skate park, the new cycle track, refurbishment of the Castle Green Pavilion and, most recently, NMITE’s new skills hub.’
Herefordshire Council was asked where this now leaves its designs for Shirehall.
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