A survey of one of North Walsham's most historic buildings, which was once earmarked to be a Wetherspoon pub, has found the building to be structurally sound - but in need of an estimated £165,000 worth of repairs.
A meeting of North Walsham High Street Heritage Action Zone (HAZ), has heard that a host surveys carried out on The Cedars in New Road in the town, has found no major structural problems with the former town council offices.
The surveys, which included asbestos, electrical, ecology, CCTV and measurement evaluations were carried out as part of HAZ project in order to find out what work would be necessary to bring the historic building back into use.
On Wednesday, December 9, the HAZ committee heard that while the surveys had found no significant issues they did highlight a number of repairs and improvements which would have to be carried out in order to make the building functional.
The works were graded into four categories of importance ranging from urgent to improvements which could be made over a three to four-year time frame and optional decorative alterations.
The meeting heard that the estimated total cost of the carrying out the two most pressing categories of repairs on-site - the most urgent of which has already been started - would cost £165,000.
Commenting on the figures, Robert Young, a North Norfolk District Council officer involved in the HAZ project said the team had a "reasonable level of confidence in the figures" but since the future of the building had yet to be decided the information gave the committee a starting point.
Mr Young said the next stage of the project would be looking at what the committee knew about the building and the level of interest in its future in the town and eventual use.
He said with the exception of urgent electrical repairs the committee did not need to "rush ahead" with works until it had "determined what the use of the building will be".
Councillor Robert Kershaw, who chaired the meeting added that the building was one that had to be protected.
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