A FORDINGBRIDGE councillor has called for “more urgency” over plans to revamp the town hall.

Councillor Mike Jackson raised concerns about the time being taken over the project during a meeting of Fordingbridge Town Council’s finance and policy committee on October 21.

Work is to be carried out to reconfigure the town hall to be able to accommodate council and tourist information centre staff.

The meeting heard the conservation officer needed a heritage assessment before commenting on the town hall proposals, which Councillor Malcolm Adams said had “held things up”.

Cllr Jackson said: “The town hall update has been going on for some time and I had a meeting at the end January, beginning of February. They said they would do the plans. We are now this farther forward and now we are finding this problem. We will have to renew the lease for King’s Yard.”

The meeting also heard the incorrect drawings had been sent out in the tender packages for the Pavilion changing room project but this had been addressed.

Cllr Jackson added: “Some how we have lost the sense of urgency on this. The same thing we have with the recreation ground. We have sent out tender documents with the wrong diagrams on them.

“I don’t think we have dealt with it in the best way. We need some urgency into these things.”

Councillor Edward Hale said the Pavilion changing room project was “still moving along” and that “a couple of weeks had been lost” which he said was a “pity”.

He said in relation to the town hall that it had “dragged along far too much”, adding: “We ought to look at ways we can try and encourage that to move forward quicker,” he added.

“As long as we are still on target to hopefully spend the CIL money we have got for the Pavilion we are not going to lose that. That is the critical thing. Hopefully, we will be able to start that after Christmas.”

Cllr Jackson said: “In terms of the Pavilion I am concerned whether we will actually get what we want from it. We need to push on with it. We are now stretching out a bit further.”

Tenders for the Pavilion contract were due to submitted at the end of October with work expected to be completed next year.

The town clerk was asked to talk to the architects regarding the progress of the town hall project.