No-go for shows at Sands Centre as RAAC closes theatre

Following the government’s recent change in guidance on the use of RAAC in the construction of school buildings, the council have been reviewing their public buildings.

In their review they have found that RAAC is present in the auditorium of the Events Centre at The Sands, Carlisle.

The new main Sands Centre building is unaffected, which includes the pools, gym, sports halls, café, bars and restaurant.

The council have now taken the decision to close the stand-alone events centre so that further assessments can be made of the older part of the building.

Last week the government ordered 104 schools across England to close late last week after a change to the advice over the safety of RAAC. Previously, the material had only been deemed unsafe once it had reached a ‘critical’ state, but that changed after the failure of a beam that had not been considered to be at that point.

On the closure leader of Cumberland Council, Cllr Mark Fryer, said: "The 1980s part of the building did not form part of the recent redevelopment work, operates separately from the redeveloped site and is self-contained.

"The events centre building has been inspected on a regular basis in accordance with government guidelines and was compliant until the recent change in government guidance, in late August.

"Improvement works for the older part of The Sands Centre building were part of phase two of the redevelopment and work was already underway to progress these works. This work will now be accelerated.

"The decision to temporarily close the events space is a precautionary step and does not impact on the day to day running of the main leisure centre.

"Events planned for the auditorium will unfortunately be cancelled until further notice. GLL, the council’s events and leisure provider, will contact ticket holders.

"This is not a decision that Cumberland Council has taken lightly, and we apologise to anyone who has been impacted.

"We can change it as fast as we possibly can, the issue is around funding. The government have said it's a public building, so they've made us close it, so a contribution from central government would be fantastic, as they've done with schools.

"But I've absolutely no doubt we'll get nothing from them.

"They just move the goalposts to suit themselves. Somebody asked me if there will be a pantomime this winter, I told them it's being acted out live.

"I just don't hold out any hope for any money in the current circumstances because all they are doing is cutting us all the time."

We have approached the government for comment.