Hull theatre upgrade becomes latest culture city project hit by delays

Instead of reopening next April, when the arts and culture festival will be in full swing, Hull New Theatre will not now be ready until late summer - with the first scheduled event due to take place on September 1.

The cost of the project has also risen to £16m - more than double the original estimate - but reflecting the council insisted, its ambition to offer “one of the best and most advanced theatres in the country.”

It comes after it emerged a new footbridge crossing the A63 - a Highways Agency project - also due to have been completed by next Easter to carry crowds to and from one of the main events areas for City of Culture - has been delayed until 2018.

There has also been criticisms of the way the upgrade of the city centre has been carried out with vast swathes dug up at once, although the council insists the majority of the work - bar that on Beverley Gate - should be completed by the end of the year.

Coun Steve Bayes said they were “concertinaing” together a project, that was taking four to five years in a city like Leeds, and denied there was anything to be embarrassed about. He said: “We took the view it was better to do everything at once rather than close it in 2018/2019 to do works that could have been excluded.

“Better to do it now and have it completed for the next 50 years.”

Coun Bayes said there was a number of theatres and venues in the private sector that could take up the slack adding: “City of Culture is more than just the city council’s infrastructure.”

Officials said the full scale of the work needed on the building - a 1930s reconstruction of assembly rooms built a century earlier - was only becoming apparent as specialists removed asbestos and carried out technical surveys following its closure in January.

The bill has soared by another £3.4m since the last estimate in January, due to a number of extras, including wide-ranging flood defence works - they are having to lift floors by 1.8m - replacing all the “uncomfy” seats and adding a second storey restaurant and bar, originally planned for a later phase of work.

Head of major projects Garry Taylor said it was by far the most complicated of all of the schemes underway in the city and would involve using a huge crane to drop in a new 27m flytower in 1,000 prefabricated sections “to make a piece of Meccano the size of a five-storey building.”

Last week Chancellor George Osborne announced £13m for City of Culture, including £5m for Hull New Theatre.

It came after the Arts Council rejected a bid for funding in January,

The complexity of the project, the need for planning approval on the latest plans, and the delay while waiting for the Budget statement last Wednesday meant “we are starting later than we would like,” Mr Taylor said. “Cross fingers” the theatre would be ready for July, he said, adding: “We aim to have the first event on September 1.”

Mr Taylor added: “If we don’t grab 2017 into 2018/19 and beyond we will have wasted 2017 - other than we have had a great party.”

Chief executive of Hull 2017 Martin Green said he was delighted the full refurbishment could go ahead.

He said: “All of Hull’s cultural venues are an integral part of 2017 and we are working with the theatre to ensure that it plays a core role in our year-long events programme.”