Next steps for Droitwich's Raven Hotel will be monitored 'closely', says leader of Wychavon District Council

Plans for the future of Droitwich's Raven Hotel will be kept a close check on says the leader of Wychavon District Council.

The grade two listed building caught fire on Sunday 10 August with most of it said to have been 'completely destroyed'.

In a statement last Friday (15 August) the council announced the fire service had now formally handed control of the site to the legal owner and developer of the building as legally required.

It said a multi-agency meeting was held on 14 August to review the current situation and next steps and also added from 15 August the owner would implement enhanced security measures at the site, including the presence of a dog handler, something the council would monitor.

"There are regular meetings with all main stakeholders involved, so whether that's the owners, the council, the fire service, the police, Historic England, we all meet now regularly to ensure things are on track," Wychavon District Council leader Richard Morris said.

"Having those meetings is really important because we need to make sure that the owner is stepping up to do something."

Parts can be saved

Structural engineers also confirmed in the meeting that elements of the listed building can be saved.

Adding the next steps are likely to include the demolition of the parts which can't be kept, councillor Morris said: "What we now need is a method statement from the owners on how they're going to go about demolition. 

"There will be five or six conditions placed on that to safeguard the building and the area around and obviously it's got to be done in a measured and calculated way." 

Work is said to now focus on agreeing priorities for site safety, propping measures, and ensuring planning conditions are met before any significant works take place.

The council say Historic England are also set to remain closely involved to help ensure the safety and security of the building’s retained historic features.

'Loss of history sill raw'

Councillor Morris says it's a real positive seeing Droitwich's Raven Hotel has some sort of future and that parts can hopefully be salvaged.

He said: "To know that it has a future is quite different to what we all thought on the Sunday night when the devastation of the fire was unfolding.

"We actually thought it was going to be just rubble and have to be totally demolished, now hopefully we can still build to have a historic building in our town and one that resembles what it did previously.

"The loss of history and a visibly beautiful building to our town is still very much there and still very raw but we have to turn the corner and look to the future."

Droitwich Spa's Heritage and Information Centre is also calling for people to continue to share their memories of the Raven Hotel so they can preserve it for the future.

The centre say they've already got a small exhibition on the history of the hotel but it's wanting to collect more pieces which they can store and use moving forward.

Red ribbons have also been placed around the cordoned off areas by people in the community as a symbol to show how much the building meant to them.

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