Story starts Cleator Moor community hub delivery

Story Contracting has been appointed principal contractor for Cumberland Council’s £4.2 million Cleator Moor community hub, moving the Revitalised Town project into construction after planning approval earlier this year.

The 14-month programme will link and refurbish the existing library and former Credit Union building in Cleator Moor Town Square, creating a combined public services and community facility while upgrading the surrounding public realm.

The buildings will be connected through a new-build annexe, with the completed hub providing improved library facilities, exhibition and arts space, areas for youth activities, and a café with a commercial kitchen. The construction package also includes extensive alterations to the existing accommodation rather than treating the scheme as a simple extension.

Procurement information for the contract specifies comprehensive renovation of both retained buildings, reconfiguration of office areas, replacement mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems throughout, and installation of a new lift serving all three floors. The former library and office buildings are listed, so the work must also satisfy the conditions attached to the planning and listed-building consents.

That creates a compact project with a wide range of interfaces. Structural alterations, new services, vertical circulation, heritage fabric, accessibility works, kitchen installation, and the new linking structure all have to be coordinated within buildings designed for different original uses and assembled into one operational facility.

The council’s latest programme puts the project into delivery during August. Early activity is expected to include asbestos removal and further ground investigation, while the full site area, including space in front of the library and the existing bus stop, is due to be fenced from 7 September.

A temporary bus stop will operate nearby while the works continue. Public access must also be retained around the perimeter of the Town Square and to adjoining Town Council offices, placing logistics, pedestrian management, and public information alongside the physical building work.

The public-realm element is substantial enough to form a separate coordination package. The contract includes new hard and soft landscaping, street furniture, cycle racks, electric-vehicle charging points, bin stores, external ramps and stairs, a replacement bus shelter, new footway lighting, and removal of redundant fixtures.

Four new CCTV cameras are also planned for connection to the existing police network. The memorial fountain is intended to be restored and returned to operation, subject to the necessary agreements, while artworks and memorials will be cleaned or repositioned and the external clock above the library entrance refurbished.

These are comparatively small packages individually, but town-centre schemes become complicated at their interfaces. Drainage routes, power supplies, lighting columns, paving build-ups, accessibility gradients, security equipment, street furniture, and building entrances all compete for space, while construction access has to coexist with pedestrians and neighbouring premises.

The listed status of the retained buildings adds a separate constraint. Refurbishment teams have less freedom to alter existing fabric simply because a modern services route, structural opening, or fire-safety detail would be easier elsewhere. New installations have to work around the architectural character and surviving materials protected by the consents.

The replacement MEP package will therefore be one of the most important technical workstreams. A hub containing a library, arts and youth spaces, offices, a commercial kitchen, and public circulation creates varied ventilation, heating, electrical, data, lighting, fire-alarm, and accessibility requirements within a relatively small group of connected buildings.

Bringing those systems through older structures increases the value of surveys and opening-up work. Design drawings can establish intended routes, but existing walls, floors, voids, and previous alterations often determine what can actually be built once intrusive work begins.

Story must also manage the change from two separate buildings into one facility. The new annexe creates the physical link, but fire strategy, floor levels, circulation, security, services distribution, and access arrangements must work across the completed hub as a coordinated public building.

Funding combines the wider Towns Fund allocation with £475,000 from the Sellafield Impact Investment Fund and £25,000 from Cleator Moor Town Council. That mix brings the usual public-sector requirements around programme, cost, reporting, and community outcomes alongside the physical construction brief.

The council has positioned the hub as part of a broader attempt to return underused town-centre buildings to productive use rather than replace them. The construction strategy therefore depends on adaptation: retaining structures, inserting new connections and services, and upgrading public space rather than clearing the site for an entirely new development.

Planning approval was granted in April. The scheme includes the Town Square works as well as the building programme, with the library already moved temporarily to nearby accommodation in preparation for redevelopment.

For Story, the first practical task is to establish the site, complete the early intrusive work, and turn a group of listed buildings and public spaces into a controlled construction environment without cutting off the town centre around them.

That sequencing will continue throughout the contract. Deliveries, scaffolding, temporary protection, excavation, services work, public routes, and landscaping will move through different areas as the job progresses, making site management as important as any single trade package.

The council expects the construction phase to last approximately 14 months, putting completion in late 2027 subject to the usual risks attached to refurbishment, where hidden conditions can matter as much as anything shown on the tender drawings.

The £4.2 million value makes Cleator Moor a modest contract beside the largest regeneration schemes, but the delivery brief is technically broad. Story must connect listed buildings, renew their services, create new accommodation, restore public-space features, and keep the centre functioning around the works — a combination in which coordination is likely to matter more than architectural spectacle.