Town Hall wallpaper cost £146,000

And the amounts are even higher than had previously been rumoured.

Chairs and coverings alone racked up a bill of £310,000, while wallpaper and decoration cost £154,000, toilet fittings £119,000, carpets £111,000 and kitchen facilities £98,000.

On top of that, microphones and technology came to £217,000 and security £106,000, with another £30,000 spent on the bar in the John Smith function room.

The sums were divulged after a review of Rotherham Borough Council’s initial partial response to an Advertiser Freedom of Information request back in August.

A month later, the authority refused to provide the information because it said it would cost too much to supply the details we asked for.

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It said that the time required to break down the costs for these items would be greater than the £450 cost limit set out under the Act’s regulations.

But after the Advertiser took up the issue, the council has now agreed to supply most of the answers.

Council legal officer Sarah Corbett, who dealt with our request, explained: “I have reviewed the request and the reasons for not providing the information. 

“I have concluded that to provide all the information requested (i.e. broken down into figures for different rooms or by different fixtures) would exceed the cost limit provided by the regulations. 

“However, within the cost limit we can provide most of the requested information.” 

She said that the remaining costs covered items such as plastering, mechanical and electrical services, structural work, doors, blinds and curtains and insurance.

The authority, whose original budget for the Town Hall was £2.4 million, previously explained that new windows, in the style of the original ones, had been provided at a cost of £40,000.

The refurbishment was designed and carried out to reflect the status of the building.

Work included extending the reception to form a more impressive entrance which has a coffered ceiling in keeping with the period style of the original building.

Committee rooms in the original building have egg and dart and dentil cornicing which has been reproduced in the extension to committee room two.

Walnut panelling which was taken from the old Town Hall has been installed in the Mayor’s and Mayoress’s Parlours and French polished.

The work has been funded from the council’s capital programme.

Last week it was revealed the council spent more than £3 million on refurbishment of two other civic buildings—£2.46 million on the new Doncaster Gate offices and £793,000 on the Eric Manns building.

A spokeswoman for the council said the original Renaissance plans included a new civic quarter on the Guest and Chrimes site, incorporating a new Town Hall at a total cost of £7.5 million. 

But in 2008 it was agreed that it would be more cost effective to refurbish the existing Town Hall and the Eric Manns Building.

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