Stockton Globe Theatre cost spirals to more than £26.5m

Stockton councillors will be asked to approve an extra £6.5m of borrowing for the Art Deco site next week after experts and contractors said even more work was needed to repair the Grade II-listed theatre.

The further repairs will push back the opening date from spring next year to November 2020.

The Globe’s renovation price tag rose to more than £20m in October after contractors uncovered unsupported walls, rotting timbers and roof weakness when the theatre was “stripped back to the bare bones” last summer.

But more reasons for the spiralling costs have now been unveiled after further discussions with contractors.

This time, the council says work to protect the building’s historic features has “added costs to the heating, ventilation, air conditioning, power, lifts and plumbing installations”.

Work on the foundations, steel work and roof structure are adding to the price tag, as well as “difficulties accessing the Globe’s auditorium” which require machinery and equipment to be dismantled and reassembled inside the building to carry out repairs.

Problems with neighbouring 153 High Street have also been flagged up – including the wall between the site and Debenhams and work needed to dig deeper foundations.

Cllr Nigel Cooke, cabinet member for regeneration and transport, said the subterranean layout of the theatre had posed its own problems.

He added: “This is a very different project to the one mooted in 2009.

“Since we took control of this in 2016, we’ve not just been involved in a refurbishment and painting of the walls. This is a full restoration for a building of national significance.

“What we’re trying to do is return the main part of the auditorium back to how it looked in 1935.

“That has posed lots of problems – it is a painstaking thing and taking lots of time.

“What we’ve come across in the main building is problems having to build scaffolding, take it down and rebuild it.

“And there were drainage problems based on due diligence at the time which have become more complex and need a better solution.”

Vote needed

An extraordinary council meeting will be held next Thursday where members will vote on borrowing the extra £6.5m – at a cost of £325,000 per year.

Papers for next week’s meeting show the Globe costs were “greater than previously estimated” and how the council would now stump up £22.25m alongside £4.5m of Heritage Lottery Funding (HLF) to pay for the work.

Cllr Cooke said the council “now knew everything” about the site now it had been drained out and 153 High Street was “down to a shell”.

He added: “We are very confident that this will open at the back end of 2020, early to mid November.

“I’m putting it on the line as politician – that’s what I really want to see. I know we’ve gone back from spring to autumn but we want to get this right.”

The Globe Theatre renovation saga has lasted a decade.

Property development firm Jomast began work to restore it in February 2011, with the council initially allocating £1m to a planned £4m joint venture.

But after delays in bid funding, Stockton Council took the lead on the stalled restoration in March 2016 and injected £2.1m of taxpayers’ money.

Repair costs have steadily risen since.

Cllr Cooke said restoration projects were “notoriously complex”.

He said: “We’ve had a number of setbacks – there’s no point shying away from that – but even when you factor in the additional costs this is still a fantastic investment that’s well worth making.

“It will bring an iconic building back into use as a 3,000 capacity venue. It’s expected to bring £18m into the local economy every year.

“And we’ve got ATG (Ambassador Theatre Group), a global leader in live entertainment, signed-up to operate it for 25 years.”

The Globe hosted The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Bee Gees in its heyday.

The long-awaited renovation has promised to bring almost 200 jobs and attract 200,000 visitors a year.

But Cllr Cooke told the Local Democracy Reporting Service how problems with the roof had slowed the project.

He added: “Modern productions, unlike the ones in 1935, have all sorts of technical things and heavy equipment and the roof needs to be able to take the weight of that.

“It gives us an opportunity to put a roof on that is sound, waterproof and that will have the tolerances to be able take any production lasting 25 to 30 years and hopefully longer than that.

“This is about doing this project properly so we can get this wonderful building back open in November next year.”

Cllr Cooke said he believed this latest cost increase would be the last.

He added: “I am very, very confident it will stop here.

“The amount we are borrowing and the due diligence around that offers a little bit of headroom and we are always prepared for contingencies.

“Stockton is far from reckless with money.

“The auditors have congratulated in recent years on our financial management and I’m sure there will be other authorities in the Tees Valley who wish they could manage their budgets as well as we could.

“We’re very careful with it – we always want to make sure the sums stack up.”

However, the Labour cabinet member said he was prepared for tough questioning at Stockton Town Hall next week.

Cllr Cooke said: “I won’t shy away, I will stand up in the council meeting and people will exercise their right to ask me – I think I could write the questions down now.

“It’s been a little bit of a setback but this is a long term project and even if it was possible to stop, and it’s not, we would never be forgiven by our future generations.

“People are still coming at me about what we did to the High Street in 1967 and I wasn’t part of that – people have long memories.

“We’re committed to the heritage of the town and we owe it to the public to see this through.

“I think it is cost effective – £6.5m is a bit of a shock to people, but it’s the best way forward.”

The Globe Theatre is still owned by Jomast.

But the council signed a 40 year-lease in 2016 which has an option to buy the whole site for £200,000 in 2031.

Using money from the authority’s £30m town centres fund was considered to pay for the latest cost hike, however, Labour leaders have opted not to dip into this pot.

Another hurdle leaders will need to overcome will be the maths of the chamber.

Labour has 24 of the 56 seats on Stockton Council, meaning the group needs to garner support from outside its ranks to get projects passed.

Cllr Cooke added: “We’re in a new position. We’re not in overall control – things change.

“Key decisions have to go to full council. The leader gave a commitment at the AGM that in this new era, fully respecting the decision the voters’ made, we will consult and give advance notice to other groups and other leaders – and we’re on with that now.

“We’re being open and honest – we just want to give them all the information to make the right decision.

“Not to vote for short term political advantage but the right decision for the good of the town, the borough, the Tees Valley and the region that we get this right.”

While the make-up of the chamber may have changed, votes on extra funding for the Globe renovation have attracted cross party support in the past.

Cllr Cooke warned the consequences of the £6.5m vote not being passed could be dire.

He added: “I don’t want to go there. We have a 25 year contractual agreement with Ambassador Theatre Group.

“They’ve already committed a lot – I don’t think they’d be very happy if we pulled out.

“We have the HLF – so £4.5m of the total is lottery money. If we reneged on that, there’d be legal complications there as well – plus we are responsible for the fabric of that building.

“I know people are going to ask but there is no low cost option.

“It would cost us significant money to do nothing and you would be throwing away that £18m of visitor spend every year.

“We can’t shy away from this. I’m going there next week and steeling myself – it goes with the job.

“I expect questions but to me we’ve got to see this through.

“It makes economic sense, it’s the right thing to do.”

In the wake of the £6.5m price rise, Thornaby independent Cllr Steve Walmsley said the rest of the borough was “subsidising Stockton High Street”.

Cllr Walmsley added: “They fell for the worst possible deal.

“Having said that, at this stage so much taxpayer money has been put into it they’d be stupid to pull out now.

“They are going to get pasted. It started at £1m and now it’s £22.5m.

“You’re not going to get us moaning about theatres or anything cultural but at what cost?

“The building could have been knocked down and rebuilt for that kind of money.”

Cllr Matt Vickers, leader of Stockton Conservatives said: “The Globe has the potential to do great things for the town but there should be no blank cheques when dealing with taxpayers money. It might be the Globe but it shouldn’t cost the Earth.

“When they came back asking for an extra £2.5m we asked whether they could guarantee they wouldn’t be coming back for more, and in fact there’s still no guarantees that this is the final cost of project. This theatre was meant to open in 2012 at a cost of around £4m, we’re now talking at least 2020 and at least £26.5m.

“This is money that hardworking families pay in council tax – the council should be spending it properly.

“The site doesn’t even belong to the council, it continues to be owned by a company who paid about £200k for it and the council are unable to offer any estimation of the current value of the asset.

“The council seriously needs to get a grip, enough is enough. I’ll be asking the Labour council at what point they would stop pumping money into this or whether the sky is the limit.

“I’ll also be asking serious questions about what Labour will do if the council votes against this additional investment.”