Preston Guild Hall 'could be rebuilt elsewhere'

Preston's Guild Hall could be rebuilt on another site, the deputy leader of the city's council has said.

Martyn Rawlinson said the authority was "not wedded to the... site for a potential future venue if any partners or investors felt other locations would be better," the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

The council recently announced it would spend the next 12 months working out whether it was possible to find the estimated £60m to £100m needed to rebuild the near 3,000-seater attraction, which opened in 1973.

Rawlinson said that creating a 21st Century incarnation of the hall as a "multi-functional, modern concert and conference/exhibition centre" would be "the best outcome".

It had previously been thought that the same site would be used whether the building was renovated or rebuilt.

But Rawlinson has now said the council was open to other options.

He warned that "other sites could be more costly, as they would be unlikely to be in council ownership".

Councillor Neil Darby, the Liberal Democrats' finance spokesperson, said: "Our policy is to be very flexible, because [the project] is a big ask.

"By its nature, we don't have the power that we're going to be able to say, 'This is what we want and this is where we want it.'"

However, Darby said he believed that keeping the hall in the heart of Preston should probably be "a red line" for any replacement.

"We want it to increase the offering [of] the city centre. Retail is much harder than it used to be, trying to compete with online, and so in order for all the offerings in town to be able to thrive, you need things that are going to draw people [in].

"Also, the Guild Hall is carrying on the tradition of over 800 years of us having a Guild and a mayor - it all comes together in that sort of package, and is part of the living history of Preston."

The Guild Hall closed in 2019, after the council had retaken control of the building.

Five years earlier, it sold a 999-year lease for it to businessman Simon Rigby for £1.

It had been costing the council about £1m a year to operate.

The hall had been due to reopen in 2023, but the plan was shelved because defective reinforced autoclave aerated concrete (RAAC) was discovered in it.

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