Struggling Ulverston Coronation Hall to be taken over by council

Ulverston's Coronation Hall has had 300,000 visitors since 2016

A council is expected to take over a community venue after its current operator's finances were "utterly decimated" by the Covid pandemic.

Westmorland and Furness Council is due to vote on plans to operate Ulverston's Coronational Hall next week.

Ulverston Community Enterprises (UCE) had run "The Coro" with its subsidiary Ulverston Coronation Hall (UCH).

UCH director Beth Kennedy said it "never truly recovered from the impact of those two years".

"Our operation and finances had been utterly decimated and re-opening in any viable way provided a renewed challenge of monumental scale," she said.

"However, we have managed to survive to a point where we have an opportunity to hand back management to a new local authority with greater resources, that understands and appreciates the role of The Coro as a valued community hub."

UCE has operated the hall under a lease-management agreement with the area's previous authority, South Lakeland District Council, since 2016.

Long-term options

The charity said about 300,000 people had visited the venue for events including comedy and children's crafting sessions since it took over.

However, it said the financial impact of the pandemic had been followed by sharply rising costs, recruitment difficulties, and reduced arts and culture funding.

The council cabinet is expected to vote to operate the venue until March 2025 while it looks at long-term options.

Councillors are also being asked to agree that the current temporary pop-up library will continue to be provided from The Coro and Ulverston Market Hall while options for reinstating the permanent library in Ulverston are discussed.

All events booked until the end of 2023 will be going ahead as planned and anyone with an event provisionally booked for 2024 will be contacted, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Westmorland and Furness Council is expected to approve the take-over at next week's cabinet meeting.