Glimmer of hope in bid to save Altrincham Town Hall

Campaigners bidding to keep Altrincham Town Hall open for community use may have forced Trafford council bosses planning to ‘dispose’ of the building into a rethink. A crunch decision over the future of the 120-year-old building - a popular wedding venue - was due to be taken at the council’s executive meeting on Monday night (February 20).

But the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) understands that emails to council leader Tom Ross were sent shortly before the meeting from Altrincham and Bowdon Civic Society and the community organisation Inch Arts. The matter was then deferred until next month, without any discussion.

Council officers have recommended that a 25-year lease for the building should be sold to childcare company Juice which currently occupies the next door premises. The authority argues that the building costs £60,000 a year to run, but the civic society argues they and Inch Arts have not been given sufficient opportunity to submit bids which show they could make running the town hall as a community interest group viable financially.

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Treasurer of the society Trevor Stone told the LDRS: “The council supposedly offered up assistance [with our bids], but they did the bare minimum. It met its legal obligations but didn’t follow the spirit of the process. It was formal stuff.

“The council said if you want to ask questions just call us, and the council responded to us, but never did anything that made us feel they were helping us. From the first meeting when we put a bid in August [2022], it was two-and-a-half months before we heard from them.

“It was the middle of November before they came back to us. In an