Town hall negotiations continue

THE final bill for restoring Yarmouth's historic town hall is still being negotiated following a catalogue of extra problems unearthed by contractors.The original costs estimate of £1.

THE final bill for restoring Yarmouth's historic town hall is still being negotiated following a catalogue of extra problems unearthed by contractors.

The original costs estimate of £1.5m quickly rocketed to more than £2m and that is set to be revised again as the eight-month work draws to an end.

The borough council's head of architectural services, David Frowde, said scaffolding and tarpaulins had started to come down and, despite a two-week delay, the grade-two listed building would be largely unwrapped in time for Christmas.

He said: “This has been the first major repair for several decades and, as far as I am aware, the first time the whole building has been re-roofed.”

However, he warned that the 155-year-old building would always be in need of more maintenance - although stonework on the hall's upper levels had been restored this time there was still a lot at lower levels that would need attention in coming years.

He said: “It is quite a soft stone. Some of the stonework had been patched up on a previous occasion but it is unclear how long those repairs will last.”

As well as the cost of stonework soaring, structural dry rot in the building was found to be much worse than expected.