ALTON Town Council has been given the go ahead to use up to £18,500 of developer contributions for environmental improvements at the Assembly Rooms.

The funding is needed to undertake urgent repairs to the Grade II Listed building on Crown Hill.

The request was marked “urgent” as the chimney, which is currently secured by scaffolding, presents a “potentially serious health and safety risk” – made all the more sensitive by the onset of autumn and with it the need to dismantle the chimney as soon as possible.

In granting permission for the release of developer contributions during a meeting of East Hampshire District Council’s (EHDC) community forum for Alton, held at Alton Community Centre on Tuesday, it was heard that phase one of a small package of works to improve the Assembly Rooms had been to investigate the ingress of damp around the main chimney of the Victorian building, which was rendering some of the meeting rooms unusable.

Once the approved contractor had erected scaffolding around the chimney it immediately became clear that the entire chimney stack, at a height of 6.8 metres from roof to crown, had become inherently unstable and was rocking.

Given the listed status of the building, removal of the chimney stack is not an option.

The forum heard that EHDC’s principal conservation officer, Peter Fellows, has worked closely with both Alton Town Council and the contractor to agree the method of repair.

The chimney has been photographed and will be dismantled brick by brick; those bricks being cleaned up for re-use wherever possible.

While the reinstatement of the chimney will be, in part, subject to weather conditions, it will be rebuilt using a mix of the salvaged bricks and secondhand matching bricks from a reclamation yard. A lead tray is to be included to deal with the damp ingress and, if possible, flue liners will be installed.

Phase two of the project, subject to the granting of planning permission and listed building consent, will be to restore the entrance area to the building to its original design, removing the later modifications to the building which are felt to be “aesthetically unpleasing”.

A separate funding request is to be submitted for these works.

In determining the request, it was noted that the project meets the terms of legal agreements with developers and represents an appropriate use of environment improvements contributions held for use in Alton.

Release of the £18,500 will be subject to Alton Town Council maintaining the works once complete and ensuring that it has funds to do this.