4 Years On: Midsomer Norton Town Hall has No Business Plan and No Opening Date

Four years after Midsomer Norton Town Hall closed for refurbishment, Freedom of Information requests show that there is still no confirmed date for the end of the refurbishment and no confirmed opening date.

Midsomer Norton Town Council has also confirmed that it does not have a current business plan demonstrating how the finished Town Hall will operate.

The Town Hall closed in September 2022 for a refurbishment which was expected to take around a year. Four years later, the project remains unfinished.

During that time costs have risen substantially, the second phase of the development has been shelved, the organisation expected to be one of the building’s main users has lost its manager and volunteers, and many of the assumptions on which the Town Hall’s original business model was based no longer apply.

Yet, four years after starting the work, there is still no business plan setting out some of the most basic information: who will use the Town Hall, what will happen there, how much income it will generate and whether that income will be sufficient to cover its costs.

Originally two phases

The transformation of the Town Hall was designed as a two-phase project.

Phase One concentrated on the existing building, including reinstating the ground-floor Market Hall and carrying out accessibility and building-services work.

Phase Two was to be a substantial four-storey side extension, containing additional meeting rooms, offices, a kitchen, archive facilities, toilets, storage and a new fire escape.

Phase Two facilities formed a major part of the financial model for the future Town Hall.

Phase Two was abandoned after Phase One had substantially exceeded its original budget and timetable.

Draft plan warns about not building Phase Two

The draft business plan contains stark warnings about trying to operate the Town Hall with Phase One alone.

The document concludes that if only Phase One went ahead, the building would “only partially meet” what had originally been intended. It also says the amount of room space available following Phase One would be only around 40 per cent of the previous capacity.

The consultant warned that if Phase Two did not happen, savings on the operating budget would need to be found or room-hire prices would need to increase.

Income projections were built around facilities that will not exist

The proposed extension was expected to provide significantly more space from which the Town Hall could generate income.

There would have been additional meeting rooms available for hire, two offices, improved catering facilities and storage.

The storage provision was particularly important. The draft business plan says Phase Two would allow chairs and tables to be removed from rooms when they were not in use, freeing those spaces for other activities.

With Phase Two abandoned, that purpose-built storage will not exist. Tables and chairs will instead have to be accommodated within the remaining rooms, reducing usable space and making them less flexible for bookings and events.

Phase Two was also expected to increase income from room hire, conferences, weddings and celebrations, catering and office rental. With the extension no longer going ahead, the additional capacity and income forecast from those facilities will not materialise.

The draft business plan is now badly out of date

The draft Business Plan was written by a consultant in November 2023, when the circumstances surrounding the Town Hall were very different.

Since the draft plan was written, Phase Two has been dropped, the project has accumulated a further three years of delay, the cost of Phase One has become much clearer and the organisations and people expected to play key roles in operating the building have changed substantially.

It seems likely that the Town Council will now need to spend additional money on consultancy, either to substantially rewrite the existing draft or produce an entirely new business plan. That would mean further expenditure simply to establish how the completed Town Hall should operate and pay its way.

The Community Trust model has gone

Perhaps the biggest change since the draft was written concerns Midsomer Norton Community Trust, which had been one of the Town Hall’s principal users and was closely involved in its day-to-day community and cultural activities before the building closed.

The draft business plan assumed that the close working relationship between the Town Council and the Community Trust would continue, with the Community Trust playing a central role in operating the building.

That is no longer the case. In January 2026, the Town Council decided not to award the Community Trust the funding it had requested. The Trust subsequently made its manager redundant and its volunteer team has since left.

That change has major implications for the activities the draft business plan assumed would return to the Town Hall, particularly those dependent on Community Trust staff and volunteers.

The draft business plan also assumed the Community Trust would continue to occupy the Town Hall. Before the refurbishment, rent and associated income from the Trust formed a significant part of the Town Hall’s finances, so with the Trust not returning, that income will also be lost.

What happens to the Community Cinema?

One of the clearest examples is the Community Cinema, which the draft business plan assumes would return as part of the Town Hall’s cultural programme and contribute income through regular film screenings, National Theatre Live productions, concerts and other ticketed events.

However, the previous cinema operation relied heavily on the Community Trust manager and volunteers, and those people are no longer in place.

Without a manager and volunteer team, the cinema cannot simply restart when the Town Hall reopens. 

It is also understood that expensive cinema equipment owned by the Community Trust was damaged during the refurbishment. If that is confirmed, there is a further question over who will pay for its repair or replacement before any cinema operation could resume.

Other Users have moved on

The Town Hall’s prolonged closure creates another problem.

Groups and organisations which previously hired rooms in the building have now been without those facilities for four years, and many will have found alternative accommodation.

The draft business plan assumed that significant numbers of previous users would return once the Town Hall reopened, but there is no published current assessment showing which organisations still intend to return, how often they would use the building or what level of room-hire income can realistically now be expected.

That uncertainty is even more significant because the Phase One-only building will offer substantially less bookable room capacity than before. This includes the loss of dedicated counselling rooms, reducing its ability to accommodate services which depend on small, private meeting spaces.

Due to the way the Town Hall refurbishment has been funded, Users will have to pay VAT on room hire.

Running costs and loan repayments

The financial challenge does not end when the refurbishment is complete.

The Town Council’s budget for 2026/27 allowed for only £10,000 of Town Hall income, against around £16,500 in basic running costs.

On top of those day-to-day costs, the Council must continue repaying the £590,000 Public Works Loan Board loan at around £29,700 a year for the next 50 years.

There will also be staffing, cleaning and caretaking costs, separate from the basic cost of keeping the building open. The Town Council will need people to manage the venue, handle bookings and users, market and promote it, oversee events, clean the premises, undertake caretaking duties and ensure it operates safely and effectively.

Midsomer Norton residents have long been told that the refurbished Town Hall would be self-sufficient and would not require ongoing support from local taxpayers.

£1.4 million over budget

Meanwhile, the cost of delivering the refurbishment has continued to rise.

Town Councillor and Finance Committee member Cllr Shaun Hughes has recently stated publicly that the Town Hall project is now approximately £1.4 million over budget.

With Phase Two abandoned, fewer rooms available for hire, the Community Trust no longer operating as originally envisaged and uncertainty over which former users will return, the question is whether the Town Hall can generate sufficient income to meet its continuing costs.

If not, how much of any shortfall will ultimately have to be met by taxpayers through the Town Council precept?

And still no confirmed opening date

Four years after the doors closed, there is still no confirmed date for the refurbishment works to end or for the Town Hall to reopen.

Numerous completion and reopening dates have been discussed over the course of the project, but every one of them has passed without the Town Hall reopening.

Without a confirmed opening date, bookings cannot be made with certainty and events cannot be organised. Potential users cannot be expected to give up their current accommodation without knowing when the Town Hall will be ready.

No business plans for Orchard Hall or the Somer Centre either

The Town Hall is not the only community building operated by Midsomer Norton Town Council without a business plan.

In response to the same Freedom of Information request, the Town Council has also confirmed that it does not have business plans for Orchard Hall or the Somer Centre.

The Council took over responsibility for running those venues in April 2026, after the Community Trust said that a proposed rent increase would make continued operation of the buildings financially unviable.

Four years on

Four years after it closed, residents are still waiting for answers to the most basic questions: when will the Town Hall open, what events and activities will happen there and how will it pay its way?

And, after years of promises that the building would be self-sustaining, will the Town Hall cover its own costs or will local taxpayers ultimately have to subsidise it through the precept?