Yahoo News Green light for historic bandstand restoration after long closure on safety grounds
Plans to repair and restore the Grade II-listed bandstand at Roker Park have been given the green light by city councillors.
Sunderland City Council’s Planning and Highways Committee, at a meeting this week, approved an application for the park’s 144-year-old bandstand, which has been closed for safety reasons for several years.
The structure was once the stunning Victorian centrepiece of the coastal park but has since fallen into a state of disrepair and was fenced off in summer 2021, with warning signs put in place.
(Image: LDRS)
At a council meeting in March, 2022, council bosses said work on the bandstand was due to be completed within 12 months, however the project has been pushed back due to other park developments.
The local authority said delays were due to works on a new café in the park, which is now in operation, as well as other works to restore the park’s water features including a boating lake.
Regeneration works are part of a wider project to improve facilities at Roker Park, and plans were approved in early 2023 for amphitheatre seating near the bandstand with a view of making it the “beating heart of the park once again”.
(Image: LDRS)
At a meeting on Monday, July 1, Sunderland City Council’s Planning and Highways Committee voted unanimously in favour of repairs and restoration works at the bandstand.
The city council application was submitted earlier this year and is part of a project to open the bandstand to the public once again.
Council planning officers, recommending the plans for approval this week, said the scheme was supported by Historic England and the council’s conservation team and that as a listed building, its preservation was important.
(Image: LDRS)
Councillor Michael Dixon welcomed the planning application but said he was “disappointed” at the current condition of the structure.
Cllr Dixon said: “Bearing in mind that it’s a listed building it’s very disappointing that it was allowed to get into a dilapidated condition, especially as Roker Park is such a wonderful park and lots of people have seen it.
“That said, I’m very happy to support the application and I’m very pleased that at last work is being done”.
(Image: LDRS)
Councillor Stephen Foster added: “I’m glad to see [the application] has finally arrived because it’s been going on far too long.
“We have been looking at this with the North Sunderland Area Committee and as Cllr Dixon said it’s been left to go to wreck and ruin, but I fully support this item”.
According to its official Historic England listing, the bandstand dates from circa 1880 and is recognised for a range of features, including its “corniced base with panelled patterns”, “ornamental railings” and “central cupola raised on pearced iron band with iron cresting”.
Supporting planning documents submitted to council officials earlier this year noted parts of the structure suffer from corrosion and staining, as well as “signs of rot to the timbers around the [roof] perimeter”.
Proposed works include a range of roof and metalwork repairs, as well as the “full redecoration” of the structure’s central dome or ‘cupola’.
Works also include “installing new tiles to cover the bandstand’s existing concrete floor”, which is described in a submitted heritage statement as “stark and inappropriate”.
Sunderland City Council’s planning department, in a report, stated the bandstand is a “fine example of a Victorian Bandstand influenced by Chinese style garden buildings, but its condition has deteriorated to a point where it is at risk and can no longer be used”.
Those behind the restoration project said repair works are “urgently required to ensure [the bandstand’s] long-term conservation and [to] re-establish its purpose as a focus for events in the park”.
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The report from council planners said the restoration plans would “allow the historic bandstand to be used by the public to enjoy and enhance the quality of life for residents and visitors”.
It was also noted that the works would “improve the tourist potential and encourage visitors to the location and combine with the proposed amphitheatre works at the site”.
Under planning conditions, works at the bandstand must take place within three years.
