Council considers selling off two town halls

Wallasey's town hall was temporarily closed last year to save money

A council could look to sell one or even both of its town halls as part of budget cuts after declaring them "underused".

Wirral councillors are being asked to consider a report on options for Birkenhead and Wallasey's town halls, which could involve redeveloping them for "leisure use".

The latter is now partially back up and running after being closed since autumn 2023 to save money.

In February, proposals were made to close it for another year in a bid to save a further £400,000, but Wirral Council is now set to reverse that decision after concluding the target could not be achieved.

Birkenhead Town Hall is the favoured option for sale, a report suggests

The local authority could now decide to close Birkenhead town hall in the future to offset the lost saving, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

According to a report brought before councillors, both town halls were "underused" and it was "not a good use of resources" to retain them.

Both buildings require a lot of work and money due to their age, with Wallasey's hall needing £5.99m of investment while Birkenhead needs £3.373m over the next 15 years.

While the council has built two new office buildings in Birkenhead, they were not built to host council meetings or civic activities, it added.

The report suggested a range of options including to either to keep both hall, sell one, or sell both.

'Leisure use'

The report suggests Birkenhead town hall is the favoured option for sale though it will be subject to a councillor decision.

Looking at future uses, a consultant found Birkenhead's hall was too small for a hotel conversion and challenging to be converted into an office but there was potential for "enhanced leisure use".

For Wallasey, it was found to be too large to be converted but "it has opportunities around leisure uses".

The report said: "It would be sensible and best value for money to retain only one of these assets, releasing the other to its future use and relieving the council of the burden of maintaining an asset it does not have a need for."

However, it added: "If they were both retained the council would need to find a use for both."