North West

Trafford Town Hall

Redevelopment works on the historic Grade II Listed Trafford Town Hall are now in their final stages.

Since August 2011, the £22.5 million project has seen the demolition of the 1980s Town Hall extension; the erection of a replacement two storey extension; and the refurbishment of the 1930s listed Town Hall building.

The redevelopment will provide office space with an associated public customer service facility, training and conference facilities and new restaurant and cafe for office and community use. It is also hoped that the new look Town Hall will host weddings and other receptions.

The new office extension will transform the way staff work on a daily basis as there will be a significant increase in open plan space. Within the Town Hall building itself the second floor has also been redeveloped to accommodate an increase in staff numbers.

A new two level decked car park has also been constructed with alterations to the surface level car park and the provision of new vehicle access from Talbot Road. Landscaping works include the remodeling of a sunken garden.

All the structural and secondary steelwork on the town hall was carried out by Orrel Structures ltd; the company was established in 2008 and has undertaken projects of up to £1.5 million in value.

Speaking about the development, Leader of Trafford Council, Cllr Matt Colledge said:

“Redeveloping the Town Hall now will prevent the building going into further decay which would necessitate greater expense down the line and will provide us with an opportunity to make millions of pounds worth of savings, money that will be used to support front line services.

“This project gives us an opportunity to open up one of the borough’s most iconic buildings so that the community and not just the council can use and benefit from the space.”

Sheperds Developments are the main contractors on the project and speaking about the development, Richard Squire, Project Director, said:

“This is an exciting project that will provide great benefits to the community through the delivery of a much-improved, modernised facility that will nonetheless retain the building’s architectural heritage.”

Shepherd Developments is part of the Shepherd Group, one of the largest privately owned groups in the European building sector. Group companies cover construction, engineering, house building and manufacturing.

Office and commercial relocations specialists P. Fahey & Sons is the relocation and storage team on the project.

Simon Fahey, P. Fahey & Sons, said:

“It’s been a pleasure to work with Shepherds once again as we have done on several occasions working on schools and colleges, this project included the relocation of 520 staff and removing and storing £1 million worth of fine art and antiques, all work has been completed on time and on budget!

“It’s been especially important for ourselves as a long established Manchester based business to be able to be involved in this kind of project and it was refreshing that the criteria for tendering had to be a Manchester based company.”

For more information on the development please visit www.trafford.gov.uk.

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