Historic Tower House, Canterbury
Friday, March 26th, 2010
Betteridge & Milsom are carrying out Quantity Surveying services for the works at Tower House.
A clip from the Kentish Gazette…..
The property is the official office and entertaining venue of the Lord Mayor but the council wants it to have a much wider community role and create an income by hosting events such as wedding receptions.
It is defending the expenditure at a time of sweeping budget cuts by saying the cost is being met by the sale of other nearby properties.
Opportunity
Spokesman Rob Davies said “Tower House is one of Canterbury’s special buildings, gifted to the city by the Williamson family, which is under-used and we believe there is an opportunity for it to have a wide community role and even some commercial use.”
The Council previously decided that creating a multi-purpose space and other improvements like a lift and new toilets should be funded by the sale of 1 Westgate Grove, the Serco depot at Westgate Court flats and the gardener’s hut in St Peter’s Place. These properties were also bequeathed to the city by the Williamson family. We have spoken to the heirs and they have told us they are happy with the proposals to sell these nearby properties, provided that the income is used for improvements to Tower House. Although that view is not contractually binding, the council has always considered it has a moral duty to use any receipts from the estate to make improvements to the estate alone.
The plans are expected to go before the development control committee on March 2 and if approved, a report would go to the Executive in due course to confirm the go-ahead.
