Herefordshire Council’s plans for the redevelopment of the St Katherine’s area in Ledbury – including a new library and customer services building – are nearing completion.
Staff who will run the new services were consulted about the detailed plans in early September and members of the public also had a chance to have their say during the very well attended Heritage Open Weekend earlier this month.
During the open weekend, some 257 members of the public came on tours of the Master’s House,
met the architects Architype, talked to the Barber Surgeon and viewed the Almshouses gardens.
Following these consultations, the design of the external lobby has been changed so it is integral with the building and the position of the new building will be closer to The Master’s House, allowing for an extra line of parking behind the building.
The next stage is to seek planning permission and the project is on track to start construction in early summer 2010. It will take a year to 18 months to build the new complex.
Copies of the latest plans are on display in Ledbury Library and there are three files of background information in the Tourist Information Centre, library and Info offices, for the public to read.
The council is also reaching a decision about the planned refreshment area and will be consulting with CVA about the possibility of a volunteer aided refreshment area for some of the opening hours but not a fully operating café.
Conservation architects Butler and Hegarty have nearly completed their survey of the Master’s House, including a thermographic study that dramatically highlights the timber framing currently hidden beneath the white render on the wall at the front of the building and the full frame around the window of the meeting room. The architects have constructed a model of the Master’s House with all elements of the timber frame, showing that it really is a building within a building.
Herefordshire Council is now looking in some detail at how services can be fitted into the Master’s House and in what stage of the project.
Concerns by traders about the loss of parking spaces are also being addressed. Options presented by traders are being evaluated to see whether they are possible and what the costs will be.
A survey of the car parks in Ledbury has also been carried out to determine the full extent of existing spaces and Herefordshire Council will also look at finding further areas of car parking to help visitors and traders during the period when building work is carried out.