Chepstow's Drill Hall is to undergo work to ensure its survival after councillors voted in a special meeting last Wednesday (15th May).

Eight town councillors attended the meeting, in which they discussed work to be carried out in compliance with a recent county council structural survey.

"The structural survey looked at all the beams and every single piece of steel in the roof and drew the conclusion that the main slanted beams in the hall's roof are 277 per cent over-stressed, said Councillor Ned Heywood, chair of the Drill Hall committee.

"That's nearly three times what they should be. And the tie bars are over 104 per cent over-stressed. One beam is bearing 6 times what it should be.

"The surveyors were worried that in a heavy snowfall the hall may not survive, equally with a strong wind.

"Do we need to close the hall? No. But you do need to do something about it".

In a written report by current mayor Paul Rutter, it is stated: "There appeared to be an acceptance by the county council that the costs of the necessary structural repairs were of the order of £70,000 but they indicated that their budget was not sufficient to meet that.

"Subsequently they have advised the Clerk that they 'have arrived at an overall cost of £60,000 for the structural repair works. It is this figure that MCC is prepared to meet. I must stress that this is MCC's final offer and that we believe that this is more than reasonable in the circumstances.'

"This figure does not meet what Raymond Lee has advised is the cost of 'necessary' repairs which in his view were closer to £70,000."

Town councillors voted unanimously to provide funding for the £10,000 outstanding.

Also discussed were four more important repair works deemed 'non essential by the council.

These works amount to a sum of around £21,500. The non essential works aim to insulate the roof and improve ventilation as well as reconfigure a roof truss in order to raise the screen and improve cinema and live theatre projections.

A new heating system has also been called for, but committee members expressed their understanding that these issues may improve with the addition of insulation.

"If the council funds the gap and pays the £21,500, the Drill Hall, by reducing its annual grant of £5,000, will pay off half of this figure over a four year period," suggested Cllr Heywood.

It was suggested that this money will come from this year's general fund surpless of £137,000. The Drill is already allocated £5000 annually by the council.

"If we don't do the insulation at this stage, the cost would be much higher later as we would have to re-scaffold and take the ceilings down again," Heywood reminded councillors.

These non-essential works faced opposition from Councillors Roe, Farley and Beach, who expressed concerns over whose responsibility the work was. Some talk was of MCC's responsibility for leasing a building with faults.

"I'm not saying the non essential work shouldn't be done, but it is who should be paying for it. There are other venues in Chepstow, if the Drill Hall is having £21,000, why can't other community halls have £21,000," said Cllr Beach.

Councillor Steff Dovey said: "God forbid should any member of the public get hurt because of the failings of this report, we would be liable and this would be more than the cost of repairs.

"We need to grab the bull by the horns and get this done."

An amended proposal was put forward for the council "to fund the £21,610 of 'non essential repairs' to the Drill Hall on the basis that the hall's committee will repay a minimum of 50 per cent of these costs over four years to be determined by negotiation of committee and council on receipt of the hall's accounts." The council passed this with four votes for, three against and three abstaintions.