Closure of Falkirk Town Hall set to go ahead - after delay for children's show

dailyrecord.co.uk:

The final closure of Falkirk Town Hall (FTH) is set to go ahead - but will be delayed to allow the children's theatre group Big Bad Wolf to go ahead with its show in February.

The minority SNP administration agreed to support an amendment from the Conservative group urging Falkirk Council to delay the closure.

The council's director of Place Services, Malcolm Bennie, wanted councillors to put an end to years of wrangling over a replacement for Falkirk's town hall and the adjoining municipal buildings, which are currently being demolished. READ MORE: Future Falkirk stars in 'save our stage' plea as Town Hall petition reaches 5000 signatures The report made clear that any new building would not contain any office space and would instead be a new town hall, containing a theatre, rather than the long talked about HQ and arts centre.He said that FTH would need to close for a year to safely disentangle it from the municipal buildings at a cost of £2.4 million, before repairs that would cost another £4 million.But his plan to close FTH after the pantomime finishes in December met with outrage from local members of the arts community, who said they had been "blindsided" by the news.At a meeting of Falkirk Council today (Wednesday), Amy Sutherland from Falkirk Operatic Society told councillors that her company stood to lose thousands of pounds as their sets, costumes and performing licence was already paid for.She spoke eloquently about the impact that the loss of FTH would have on members of her group and others and said that a closure of five to ten years would mean groups would almost certainly not survive.She warned councillors that many would go to other local authorities to spend their money in their facilities, fatally