URGENT work is to be carried out to make the derelict former Futurist Cinema in Liverpool safe - after an inspection showed it is in danger of collapse, Liverpool City Council said tonight.
It says building safety inspectors have found that the condition of the structure on Lime Street has deteriorated, with internal collapse, leaning walls and a high risk that cladding tiles may fall off.
The council says it has been served with a Section 77 legal notice giving five days to make the structure – due to be demolished as part of the controversial £35 million Lime Street regeneration scheme – completely safe.
A cordon will be placed around the site from 7pm tonight (Friday 15 April), with the public footpath outside the former cinema closed off and access for traffic on part of Lime Street reduced to a single lane in each direction.
The latest developement comes just weeks after London-based heritage campaigners SAVE announced it would fight the planned demolition of the Futurist - and several buidings either side - in the Appeal Court.
For now, SAVE officials are urgently discussing this turn of events, after details of the situation were only released by the city council at 5pm tonight.
The move took the campaigners by surprise. Marcus Binney, President of SAVE Britain’s Heritage, commented:“We are very alarmed by what could be a repeat of the Firestone Factory – the notorious 1970s case of a historic art deco building on the outskirts of London that was demolished over a bank holiday weekend by its owners the day before it was due to be listed and protected.”
“While it is right to take precautionary measures if necessary, this should be to hold the building up, not demolish it.”
Henrietta Billings, Director of SAVE Britain’s Heritage added; “It is particularly unfortunate that Liverpool City Council has granted itself permission to carry out the emergency works on a Friday evening, and the building inspector’s report that has informed the decision is not publiclly available. We want urgent assurances from Liverpool City Council that ahead of the forthcoming Court of Appeal hearing, they will stabilize this historic building”
SAVE is currently waiting for a date for its Appeal Court hearing to challenge the Lime Street plan.
The sorry looking Futurist is at the centre of a legal battle, and now under threat collapse, says the council in a statement released this evening
Assistant Director of Regeneration, Mark Kitts, said: “The Futurist has been deteriorating for a very long time and when we bought the site a couple of years ago it was already pretty much beyond repair.
“Sadly we were unable to find a way of saving it as part of the regeneration proposals for Lime Street, and we are now at the stage where it has become a danger to public safety.
“The legal notice requires us to take action within five days, which is why we are moving quickly to make the area around it safe before starting to deconstruct the parts of the structure that are unsafe.”
Read all our coverage on Lime Street and the Futurist in the Wakelet below.
