Safety work begins on Carlisle's Central PLaza Hotel

Carlisle City Council served an ‘Urgent Works Notice’ to the owners of the local landmark to ensure that works were carried out. As no response has been received from the owners, the City Council has now procured Cumbrian based Team Northern Construction to undertake the work.

The ‘Urgent Works’ will include repairing the existing scaffolding and repair work to the roof. The measures aim to make the building wind and weather tight and to limit any further deterioration.

The council will undertake the work and will then be able to seek recovery of the costs from the owner. This could result in a legal charge on the building. The work is likely to carry on until early March.

Cllr Marilyn Bowman, Portfolio holder for Economic Development, said: “This is the first time that this action, under planning legislation, has been used by the council and it enables the council to undertake the works if the owner takes no action. I’m sure that residents will be pleased to hear that we’ve taken action to preserve this landmark. Although the building is structurally secure, it’s now reached the stage that we have to take steps to ensure the building does not deteriorate any further.”

The City Council has worked tirelessly behind the scenes to try and keep the Central Plaza building in a decent state of repair. Various measures have been taken to ensure that the building is secure and properly maintained. Although previous assurances have been given that work would be done, no recent conservation work has been undertaken.

Concerns about the Central Plaza building escalated following the owner’s agent and project manager notifying the council that they were no longer involved with the building. Council Officers have written to the owners of the building to get new contact details but none have been forthcoming.