‘We will end up just losing’: Council asked to fund urgent repairs to Knottingley Town Hall

Roof repairs are urgently required at Knottingley’s 19th Century town hall building, a councillor for the area has said.

Rachel Speak said she feared the town would lose one of it’s most historic buildings, which dates back to 1865, unless Wakefield Council intervened.

The Liberal Democrat councillor raised her concerns about the property’s future during questions to Karl Johnson, the council’s Reform UK leader.

Earlier in the full council meeting, Coun Johnson criticised the former Labour administration over delays in carrying out repairs at Wakefield city centre’s Grade I-listed County Hall building.

Last month, cabinet members agreed to spend a total of £14m to replace the roof and carry out repairs after surveyors described it as “structurally weak”, with ceilings at risk of collapse due to leaks.

He said: “It should have cost about £2m to fix, it’s now £14m. As we have said, we’ve never known a roof that fixes itself, it just gets worse.

“That’s £12m we could have spent on a lot of other projects.”

Coun Speak asked the leader: “If we could have your enthusiasm in Knottingley, please. I know we are going to meet soon, hopefully.

“We have a town hall with a bad roof.

“The roof is damaged and it’s causing damage internally.

“In Knottingley we don’t tend to get the luck in terms of getting things done.”

Coun Speak told the meeting firefighters had to use machinery to display the Union Jack on top of the building due to safety issues with the roof.

She said the building, on Weeland Road, was council-owned but operated as community centre and was run by a committee.

She added: “They have got a lease, but the fact is, as you’ve just said, roofs don’t repair themselves and I understand that phrase now.

“We need to sort our roof out to make sure there is not another £14m of repairs, which won’t happen in Knottingley – we will end up just losing it.”

Coun Johnson told Coun Speak he would send her a written response to the question, adding: “Unfortunately we didn’t have a balanced budget so we will have to look at it.”