Fears for listed building after roof collapses

Heritage campaigners fear a derelict listed building will become even more damaged after drone footage showed part of the roof has collapsed.

Sheffield Old Town Hall at Waingate was given grade II listed status 50 years ago and has been empty for the past 30 years.

The Friends of the Old Town Hall, who have been campaigning for the building to be preserved and restored, now fear the weather will damage the building even further.

Chairperson Valerie Bayliss said: "We only discovered it because somebody shared a drone image showing the roof of the 1866 courtroom had collapsed. I don't think it's visible from street level. We think the roof has been damaged at least a couple of months."

The Friends group said local authorities had legal powers to require owners to improve buildings and to make them weatherproof and safe.

Bayliss said: "There are urgent works notices and repair notices but if a council gives an owner one of those notices and the owner ignores it, then it falls to the council to get the work done and to pay for it and they don't get that money back until the building is sold.

"I think there is a real fear that the cost of making the Old Town Hall weatherproof and safe is so high after 30 years of neglect that it's probably more than you could conceivably get from selling the building."

Sheffield Council said it would continue to contact the building's owner, property developer Gary Ata, regarding its current state.

A statement said: "We are considering the implications of the recent roof collapse from a dangerous structures and listed building perspective.

"This is a historically important building and the council is very keen to see it returned to use as quickly as possible."

The Friends group said it feared there was a risk in future of it falling down or being demolished.

Bayliss added: "I don't think we are in that territory yet but nobody foresaw the roof collapsing, we really didn't.

"This is a big, dirty, damaged building sitting in the middle of Castlegate. We have a very long held view that until somebody sorts out the Old Town Hall and gets it back into shape, you are never going to get Castlegate properly regenerated as it will deter private investment."

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