It's almost five years since Preston's Guild Hall was forced to close. The city's politicians discuss its future during our local election debate.
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00:00 We've been a big hit hard really with the Guild Hall and the fact, and I know it's not your
00:05 particular fault Matthew, that it's got rack and it's got works to be done, but we do need to get
00:11 that foyer opened because it was used for the Mayor's Ball on Saturday evening, so there's no
00:16 reason why we can't move forward and get that up and running really, really quickly to get some
00:20 kind of venue back to Preston and then we can move forward. It's just, it seems to be slow because
00:26 we were talking before about how many hustings we've done and we're still talking about the same
00:30 things year after year. We definitely need a venue in Preston and at the moment Guild Hall has got
00:36 quite a bit of life in it. As we use the foyer and we're using the foyer going forward for the count
00:43 then there's no reason why it can't be opened as quickly as possible to get that up and running and
00:48 have some kind of venue there. I mean I went to the Grand at Clitheroe last week, you know it's
00:53 a small venue and it brings in loads and loads of business and people and that's what we need.
00:58 You know I'm not asking for a big MEN sort of arena type of thing, but just something that's
01:03 the centre of Preston. It's really important to people who live in Preston and then they use all
01:07 the facilities in Preston itself, the restaurants and the bars, because they make a night of it and
01:13 I think that's we need to get that up and running as soon as possible. In terms of the Guild Hall
01:17 John, I know at the budget meeting earlier this year you were looking to the longer term future
01:23 of that facility. Is that rather defeatist that you think that the Guild Hall in its current form
01:29 really hasn't got much life left in it? You can't get past reality. Buildings have certain lifespans
01:35 and the Guild Hall at most is going to have a few decades left. That's the nature of it. Anyone
01:41 that tells you different doesn't understand the nature of that concrete in the Guild Hall.
01:44 And what we need in Preston more than anything else is actually a conference venue and because
01:49 the Guild Hall is of its time it's served a purpose. It's had a great life but we know it
01:55 is coming near the end of that life at some point. So we need to plan for what's next. And to do that
02:01 you have to have an idea if money suddenly appears. We've had lots of things recently like
02:06 you know levelling up funds or whatever else that come in. You have got to have a plan in place so
02:10 if the money becomes available or an opportunity presents itself you can grab it and say this is
02:15 what we want for our city. In terms of the Guild Hall and the plan to reopen the Guild Hall foyer
02:22 can you put a date on that? Well we hope to do it this year but again it's not anyone's fault that
02:28 we found RAC. And if we had a government that was supportive what they would do is make money
02:32 available to councils to deal with it and deal with it quickly. But we don't. So obviously we're
02:37 trying to find a way of dealing with that going forward. But the plan is Guild Hall will open in the
02:41 next few months and then obviously we need to look at how we can actually open the rest of the
02:46 building because obviously there is RAC and that needs to be dealt with going forward in both the
02:50 you know the main hall and the Charter Theatre. And obviously we could open the foyer which
02:56 you know is a 500-seater venue and that'll be pretty good going forward. But you know we're
03:00 standing behind the Guild Hall we want it open again. But again it's not always that easy when
03:05 we have issues around financing issues around finding things like RAC in the roof.