PLANS to restore and bring back into use parts of the historic Walton Hall estate which have not been available to the public for many years – and in some cases have never been open – have been given the green light by Warrington planning chiefs.
The proposals will involve the conservation, repair and refurbishment of the shippon, vinery, potting sheds, lean-to sheds and glass houses and use of the buildings for non-residential education, retail, offices and workshops.
There will also be repairs, re-roofing, etc of a disused riding school building and stables.
Walton Hall is a Grade 2 Listed building, so the scheme has required Listed Building consent in addition to planning approval.
The buildings date from the latter part of the 19th century and were built by the first Lord Daresbury.
Some were used during World War 2 for garaging fire engines, storage and for billeting troops.
It is intended to bring the buildings into full use as a multi-purpose events spaces.
Inside the riding school building
7 Comments
This was only possible by Councillors Mike and Kate Hannon who were instrumental in preventing the Walton Hall being sold off to the private section, lets thank them.
Is that really so? I’m asking because I genuinely don’t know the full story of Walton Hall, save to say a back of a fag packet calculation was offered as “justification” for selling off another of the town’s assets, when the Con/Libs were running the show.
don
‘t you remember the Lib / dem party’s running the show, or have you got a short memory Positron
Well done to them both….but from memory wasn’t the sell off mainly thwarted by the ‘Save Walton Hall’ campaign and a huge amount of support for the campaign and opposition to the plans shown from local residents and members of the general public etc ?
Great that it’s all finally going to be restored after far to many years of neglect…..:it will be lovely D
Good to see you all being so upbeat and positive about what can only be seen as a good thing. Stop the whinging and accept good news when it comes,
Nobody is ‘whinging’ TOGGER, just a little surprised that Mr Groarke seems to be confused as to the history of the ‘sell off scandal’.
He is correct in saying that the Lib/Cons were running the sell-off show, they worked closely with Andy Farrell, ‘regeneration’ officer and between them, despicably, behind closed doors, they plotted to sell off one of the town’s best and much cherished assets. The ‘Save Walton Hall’ campaign group was set up and worked hard to find out what exactly was going on and revealed the dirty deeds to the general public. There was mass outrage and very quickly the campaign group had over 18,000 supporters. The campaign group sought the support of ALL Warrington councillors to challenge the Lib/Con executive board’s proposals and though many expressed sympathy they declined to act. The councillor who did agree to act was Terry O’Neil who initiated the call-in to scrutiny, others who were signatories of the call-in were; Cllrs Peter Carey, Steve Wright, Pat Wright & Mike Hannon. The campaign group were urging for a ‘full council’ enquiry.
However, at this stage it was announced that Contessa had pulled out of the deal and gave what seemed some superficial reasons for this, bad publicity etc. No scrutiny was carried out.
There was no full enquiry and details of inaccuracies in the accounts/running costs of the Hall and questions about the procurement procedure which the campaign group wanted to be addressed were not given the full scrutiny and public airing they should have merited. It is widely questioned whether the real reason the deal with Contessa was abruptly ended was to prevent any in-depth inquiry.
Whatever, the sell off of Walton Hall had been scuppered.
MR GROARKE, I hope this clears up any confusion you have re the history of the sell-off scandal. As you will see the only imput of Cllr Mike Hannon up to this stage was his signature on the call in request.
There were a number of individuals who truly could be credited with being instrumental in saving Walton Hall from being sold off – those who worked and fought hard for months. But whatever any individual did the real reason Walton Hall was saved was PEOPLE POWER! without the 18,000+ people showing active outrage Walton Hall and its beautiful gardens would have been lost to the public forever.
That said, once the Hall had been saved a group was set up to find ways to raise funds to regenerate the glass house, riding school buildings, court yard etc. and promote good management of the estate, all of which to ensure its long term future. This is where Mike and Kate Hannah come into the picture and all their work so far in progressing the regeneration works has achieved a successful outcome. So to Mike & Kate and those others who have contributed to this – credit where due – WELL DONE!
Thanks for the brief history SHA. I knew there was some previous skullduggery, but not the detail. That said the make up of the gang pressing to hive off Walton Hall is not surprising, nor was the reluctance to inquire into their behaviour.
I second your good wishes to all those who have helped in saving Walton Hall.