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The ramp, which provides access for vehicles making deliveries to the shopping units, joins in with Bankfield.
Work on Burnley’s multi-million pound central shopping area development will grind to a halt in about eight weeks as the planners decide what is to be done, and when, about the final two phases, which include the Palace block. In those eight weeks Costains, the main contractor will complete phases eight and nine, making available 18 more shop units, large car parking areas, and an elevated roadway to serve shops. This will complete development from Curzon Street to Bridge Street. The new multi-storey car stack on the west side of Curzon Street is virtually complete, along with its elevated pedestrian way linking in with the market area.
Plans for the last two phases, from Bridge Street to Hall Street, are now deferred. The planners want to build an ultramodern multi-storey office block on the site, along with further shops. But yesterday officers of the corporation were discussing the future of the site with the developers, Hammerson’s. The officers will report on the outcome to members of the town council’s Development Committee whose chairman, Ald. Frank Bailey told the Burnley Express “These two phases have been postponed, in the first instance because of a request from Hammerson’s due to their experiences in the first phases. The officers keep a close watch on the situation and report to my committee. As far as I am aware there is no question of abandoning the final states.”
The local authority had already been involved in an expenditure on the top side of £3m in the current development. “A decision on the Palace block must be made quickly – and it must be the right decision,” he said. The Borough Surveyor (Mr. E. C. Ashby) told our reporter: “We shall be reporting to the Development Committee on a meeting we are to have with the developers this week. We shall discuss the demand for shops and whether we ought to proceed with the Palace block development at present. It will require a lot of consideration and we must take into account the current industrial situation with other factors.”
The Palace Theatre, once a bingo hall, is now empty. Burnley Light Opera Society has lost the use of the Empire to bingo, and Mr. Ashby was asked whether the society, if it were interested, might use the Palace. He replied “I doubt whether the present building is 100 per cent safe. It has a hole in its roof, and is in need of repair. Whether anyone wishing to use it would be prepared to spend money on it would be up to them, particularly with its demolition and redevelopment of the site being planned”.
A spokesman for Costain said “We are on programme, bearing in mind that we have been granted delays because of a shortage of steel last year. We have already successfully handed over phases three to seven of the development and phases eight and nine, extending to Bridge Street will be complete within eight weeks. In fact, we have already handed over part of phase eight – the vehicle ramp from Bankfield which serves the shops. He said that phase eight was composed of shops units and a basement car parking area and a service road. Phase nine provided more shops at ground level and a first-floor area for storage rooms. The Curzon Street car stack is due to open in May and will be completed at the beginning of next month. The contractors will also provide a service road on the south side of the stack.
The development has been carried out in reinforced concrete with brick cladding. It includes three patterned murals and others in one colour. During the development the contractors used explosives to demolish a culvert. They are also building a culvert on the car stack site.