Central Plaza, Carlisle
Urgent works get underway
(Date of issue: Friday, 10 February 2012)
Work has started on making essential repairs to the Central
Plaza Hotel, Carlisle.
Carlisle City Council served an ‘Urgent Works Notice’ to the
owners of the local landmark to ensure that works were carried out.
As no response has been received from the owners, the City Council
has now procured Cumbrian based Team Northern Construction to
undertake the work.
The ‘Urgent Works’ will include repairing the existing
scaffolding and repair work to the roof. The measures aim to make
the building wind and weather tight and to limit any further
deterioration.
The council will undertake the work and will then be able to
seek recovery of the costs from the owner. This could result in a
legal charge on the building. The work is likely to carry on until
early March.
Cllr Marilyn Bowman, Portfolio holder for Economic Development,
said:
“This is the first time that this action, under planning
legislation, has been used by the council and it enables the
council to undertake the works if the owner takes no action. I’m
sure that residents will be pleased to hear that we’ve taken action
to preserve this landmark. Although the building is structurally
secure, it’s now reached the stage that we have to take steps to
ensure the building does not deteriorate any further.”
The City Council has worked tirelessly behind the scenes to try
and keep the Central Plaza building in a decent state of repair.
Various measures have been taken to ensure that the building is
secure and properly maintained. Although previous assurances have
been given that work would be done, no recent conservation work has
been undertaken.
Concerns about the Central Plaza building escalated following
the owner’s agent and project manager notifying the council that
they were no longer involved with the building. Council Officers
have written to the owners of the building to get new contact
details but none have been forthcoming.