Shopping centre roof repairs to cost council £1.6m

A district council in Oxfordshire will need to pay £1.65m to fix the failing roof of a shopping centre it bought eight years ago.

Cherwell District Council purchased Castle Quay and its adjacent leisure complex in Banbury for £121.6m in 2017.

But the 50-year-old building has now been deemed in need of roof repairs to ensure it remains weatherproof. As the landlords, the council is responsible for the full cost.

At a meeting on Monday night, the authority approved funds for the programme, with one councillor calling the building "a folly" that continues to drain the authority's resources.

Green councillor Ian Middleton, the lead member for neighbourhood services at the council, said the funding was further investment into a project that had "never made a profit and has never lived up to the promises that were made when it was first approved".

He said the £1.65m could be better spent on high street improvements, climate change projects, support for homelessness programmes and investment in local communities.

"Instead, it's being swallowed up by a single folly that continues to drain resources year after year," he said.

The purchase of the centre was made by the council's previous Conservative administration, with the local authority moving its headquarters to Castle Quay in April this year.

The current Conservative leader on Cherwell District Council, Eddie Reeves, said there was "a great deal of benefit" to moving out of its previous HQ at Bodicote House, contributing to the "meaningful regeneration" of Banbury.

Once the repairs are complete, the authority says it will look into adding solar panels to the roof.

But these cannot be done at the same time, as the costs for environmental improvements come from a different funding stream.

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