Repairs to Ellesmere Town Hall could take two years

The flat roof on Ellesmere's town hall has been a problem since April 2013 when it sprang a leak in up to four places.

But it could be at least a couple of years before major work is carried out to sort the problem for good according to the newly-elected town mayor.

Councillor Ryan Hartley said: "The town hall roof funding is one of the major problems we have. It needs to be sorted before the end of this decade.

"We keep having little problems with the flat roof, which we can hopefully get sorted properly in the next two three years.

"It is quite expensive and we don't want to land the town with an expensive loan or precept.

"We are looking at ways of funding. One of the figures which has been bandied around for the repairs is £75,000, but I think that is quite a conservative figure and think it will cost a lot more than that.

"Options we are looking at are to replace the flat roof with another flat roof, repair it, or we can put up a pitch roof which will last longer.

"Obviously we would like to put up a pitch roof but that would cost more."

At a meeting of Ellesmere Town Council, councillors set aside £40,000 in earmarked reserves for the roof and to provide a new entrance foyer at the hall on Willow Street.

"It is important to have a double set of doors at the entrance as it really does help to keep the warm in the building. At the moment we have just got an open porch.

"Work on the entrance will probably be done before the roof," Councillor Hartley added.

The town hall was constructed in the 1960s and councillors have been known to have buckets dotted around to catch the leaking water.

Several years ago the town hall needed an urgent building survey after a major leak was detected by water experts.

Severn Trent spotted the leak at the hall after a routine night patrol in the area.

There was originally about 900 litres an hour leaking and town councillors agreed to get some quotes to have a full survey of the building and find out where the leak is coming from.

Discussions have been ongoing over the issue for a number of years, and the hall has also had issues with drainage problems.

The hall hosts a range of community groups, public meeting and functions throughout the year.