The council will take control of the ‘much loved’ Coronation Hall in Ulverston from the start of 2024 after the current leaseholders’ finances were ‘utterly decimated’ in the pandemic.

The cabinet for Westmorland and Furness Council has voted unanimously to approve plans to take over the running of The Coro from Ulverston Community Enterprises (UCE) and its subsidiary charity Ulverston Coronation Hall (UCH).

Cabinet member for sustainable communities and localities, councillor Virginia Taylor (Penrith South, Lib Dems), said the hall was ‘a much-loved venue in the heart of Ulverston that showcases some world-class performances alongside homegrown artists’.

“It provides access to some quality creative and cultural experiences and spaces for local communities to come together”, Cllr Taylor added.

Councillors agreed that the current temporary pop-up library offer will continue to be provided from The Coro and Ulverston Market Hall while options for reinstating the permanent library offer in Ulverston are developed and consulted on.

Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, Education and Skills, Sue Sanderson (Grange and Cartmel, Lib Dems), said she supports Cllr Taylor’s recommendations – particularly the library arrangement as it is a ‘social centre’ for many people.

UCE had operated the hall from 2016 onwards under a lease management agreement with the previous authority South Lakeland District Council (SLDC).

The charity says since taking over the running of the venue it has welcomed an estimated 300,000 people for everything from comedy to kids’ crafting sessions and has engaged with a further 70,000 through free outdoor public art installations.

However, the charity said the unprecedented upheaval and financial impact of the pandemic followed by drastically rising costs and inflation, changes in audience and hirer behaviour, recruitment difficulties, and a tough landscape for arts and culture funding caused the organisation to face an uncertain future.

Beth Kennedy, director of UCH, said: “Our operation and finances had been utterly decimated and re-opening in any viable way provided a renewed challenge of monumental scale, we’ve always placed the community needs and love for this building first.

“Therefore, we did re-open and have worked tirelessly to restore the cultural and community offer in The Coro and re-establish a more stable financial position. But in reality, we never truly recovered from the impact of those two years.

“However, we have managed to survive to a point where we have an opportunity to hand back management to a new local authority, with greater resources, that understands and appreciates the role of The Coro as a valued community hub.”

The council will continue to operate it as a cultural and community venue, initially until March 2025 which allow the authority time to prepare an options appraisal and business case setting out proposed long-term options for The Coro.

Cllr Taylor added: “Although we recognise a change in management may cause some uncertainty, we can reassure the community that we absolutely recognise the importance of The Coro to Ulverston and our ambitions would be to maintain, protect and enhance its role as a vital arts, cultural and community venue.”

All public and private events booked in up until the end of 2023 will be going ahead as planned and anyone with an event pencilled in for 2024 will be contacted over the coming weeks.

Westmorland and Furness Council approved plans to operate The Coro in a cabinet meeting on Tuesday (November 14) at Penrith Town Hall