Hippodrome could be flattened by December if historic covenant is overturned
Dudley Hippodrome could be flattened by the end of the year under plans to be considered by councillors tonight.
Members of Dudley Council's cabinet will tonight be asked to overturn a restrictive covenant which stipulated that the site could only be used for leisure, retail or housing.
This would pave the way for the site to be redeveloped as a university centre. Last year the authority secured a £25 million grant from the Government's Towns Fund for the scheme, which would see Worcester University run a nursing college from the site.
Councillors will also be asked to approve the making of a compulsory purchase order to acquire the neighbouring former roller-skate rink, now used as a banqueting suite and the offices of a security company.
The cabinet is also being asked to authorise director of regeneration and enterprise Helen Martin to grant a lease on the proposed university building once it is complete.
A proposed timetable for the scheme would see the theatre demolished by December this year, work to begin on the new building in January 2024, and the new university centre to be up-and-running in time for September 2025.
The move has been met with an angry response by the Dudley Hippodrome Development Trust, which accused the council of squandering money on a "vanity project".
Trust spokesman Dave Homer said: "All the ratepayers' monies spent so far on Castle Hill vanity projects to try to reduce the Hippodrome to rubble has cost countless millions."
Mr Homer claimed the council had spent vast sums on consultancy and agency fees, and questioned whether the university scheme could be delivered on budget.
"We feel all that wasted money could have been used to refurb the Hippodrome and it would be reopen by now," he said.
"Despite saying 'all options to retain the Hippodrome have been exhausted', the people of Dudley know that is not the truth."
He also said negotiations to purchase the Castle Hill Banqueting Suite – formerly JB's nightclub – could drag on for up to three years, at great expense to the taxpayer.
"The original build cost for the university was put at £36 million - £25 million from the Towns Fund, and £11 million from Dudley College," said Mr Homer.
"There has been a four-fold increase in building costs to date, so the estimate is surely now not achievable."
The Kennedy family, which ran the Hippodrome theatre for more than 20 years, placed a covenant on the building and the neighbouring Plaza cinema restricting future use of the site for entertainment, housing or retail purposes.
But Mrs Martin's report said the council had obtained legal advice which said this could be over-ridden using the Housing and Planning Act 2003.
She said to do this, the council would publish a further report providing evidence that the development would benefit residents of Dudley and that the current covenant was restricting development of the site.
