Councillors agree to replace crumbling roof at Wakefield's County Hall for £14m
The building last underwent a major refurbishment in 1991, costing £3m.
Senior councillors have agreed to replace the roof and carry out repairs at Wakefield’s County Hall at a cost of £14m.
Wakefield Council’s Reform UK leaders aimed criticism at the previous Labour administration over delays in carrying out repairs to the Grade I-listed building, which led to the costs more than doubling.
Surveyors have described parts of the council’s former headquarters as “structurally weak”, with ceilings at risk of collapse due to roof leaks.
Seven years ago, the former Labour administration was told that urgent repair work was required on the 19th Century building, which was then used for most council meetings and was a workplace for almost 500 staff.
But no work was carried out due to what officers described as “a combination of factors,” including the Covid pandemic.
The council then agreed to spend £5.9m in February 2025 to make the building watertight.
The authority has been under the control of Reform since May after the party won 58 out of 63 council seats at the local elections.
Cabinet members voted in favour of spending a further £8.2m to cover the cost of a full roof replacement and repairs to windows and masonry, taking the overall project cost to £14.1m.
Council deputy leader John Thomas told a meeting on Tuesday: “I went for a tour of County Hall yesterday and the state of disrepair is just unbelievable.
“The whole of the third floor is completely out of access because it is structurally unsafe.
“You can see as you walk around all the former council offices, the water ingress that has got in through the stonework and blown all the plaster and all the paint.
“It’s an absolute disaster and this could have been mitigated years ago for a significantly reduced (cost).
“But we are in the position that we are in. To stop it getting any worse, this is the sort of money that we will need to approve.”
A report to cabinet members said: “Without those proposed works, the building will progressively deteriorate and expose Wakefield Council to potential enforcement action by Historic England, unsafe structure and poor reputation from the public and negative media.
“Untreated water ingress will lead to further structural issues and any delay will add additional costs to repair the damage at a later date.”
Council leader Karl Johnson told the meeting: “In the past there has been absolutely appalling decision making of the highest order.
“What roof actually fixes itself? It doesn’t. This is just a disaster for the residents of Wakefield – £14m to £15m compared to, say, £2m several years ago.
“That’s £10m we could have spent for the residents of Wakefield on many, many things.
“Moving forward, we are going to have this fixed so nothing like this can happen again.”
The council announced a temporary closure of County Hall in 2022, blaming soaring energy costs required to heat the building.
The building is still used to hold monthly full council meetings but is now mostly unoccupied, apart from the ground floor and archive storage areas in the basement.
In 2019, it was revealed that the whole of County Hall’s third floor had closed as a result of damp and the roof’s disrepair had become “visibly obvious” from several parts of the building.
Further surveys carried out in October 2024 raised concerns over “increasing costs to rectify structural issues”.
Coun Thomas said no external funding was available to cover the repair costs but grants could become available once a future use for the property has been identified.
The possibility of converting the property into apartments or a hotel had previously been considered but was deemed “not to be a viable option for future use,” the meeting heard.
Coun Thomas said other possible options included partnering with other public organisations to offer work space or providing start-up accommodation.
Kevin Trickett, president of Wakefield Civic Society, told the Local Democracy Reporting: “It’s a lot of money for the council to commit to spending.
“We are really pleased they have made the right decision.
“This building is such a significant part of Wakefield’s built heritage that it has to be saved, it has to be kept in good condition.
“It’s a Grade I-listed building, so it’s one of the the top 2.5% of all the listed buildings in England.”
County Hall was home to the West Riding of Yorkshire County Council from 1898 until 1974, when the new West Yorkshire County Council inherited the building.
Wakefield Council acquired it in 1987 after the County Council was abolished the previous year.
The building last underwent a major refurbishment in 1991, costing £3m.