Town hall's 'appalling plastic pod' plans on hold

A council has put its own plans to refurbish a historic town hall on hold, after members branded the scheme "appalling" and "alien".

Westmorland and Furness councillors deferred a listed building consent application for work to be carried out at Kendal Town Hall, Cumbria.

The proposals were for "acoustic interview pods" to be added to the council chamber and to convert the nearby Bindloss Room so it could be used for meetings.

Planning committee member Rupert Audland called it "an aberration", adding: "Our whole historical past is disappearing at a rate of knots. I do think we need to question what we're up to as a council, it's shocking to me."

The upgrade at the Grade II listed building was intended to provide "better spaces" for members of the public to meet officers and councillors.

However, members of South Lakeland Local Area Planning Committee deferred the plans to allow for more information to be sought around its design and appearance.

A planning statement said the listed building application was "for minor refurbishment works", which would complement the existing building and interior design.

Kendal Town Council objected to the Liberal Democrat-led unitary authority's application, citing the proposed changes were "not in keeping" with the building's historic character.

"The designs are alien to the early 20th Century ambience of the town council chamber, and do not enhance the setting of the arts and crafts fireplace, or of the town hall's historic art collection," it said.

Concerns were also raised about community groups being unable to access the building, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Audland, Lib Dem, added: "I'm struggling to find the words here, the idea of filling up Kendal Town Council's chamber with plastic pods, moveable, immoveable, is appalling.

"We already have nowhere to go when we have meetings, we're struggling to find private spaces, this will make it worse. It's another full-size council chamber that's just going to disappear off the map."

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