A major civic building has been “sat there” not fully used despite a planned town hall revamp.

Long trailed £3.5m works to refurbish Westhoughton Town Hall are set to finally get underway in November this year, with offices a café and a restaurant all proposed at the building.

But a recent meeting of the council’s corporate and external issues scrutiny committee heard concerns about the apparent lack of works on the neighbouring library and Carnegie Hall.

Cllr David Wilkinson, of Westhoughton South, said: “How are we going to look at how we revamp some of our local libraries?

“Some have but in the case of Westhoughton, we’ve had a fairly traditional layout for some time now, but we’ve also got the Carnegie at the side which is basically sat there apart from certain groups going there.

Works have long been trailed at the historic town hallWorks have long been trailed at the historic town hall (Image: Bolton Council)

“The local history group go in there, which is well used, well attended, etc but we have a big venue where we’ve had minimal usage.”

Cllr Wilkinson said that the “quite big” kitchen area and bar area were not being used.

The £3.5m scheme to refurbish the grade II listed terracotta stone Westhoughton Town Hall was announced by Bolton Council last year, with £1.5m coming from the district centres fund.

But repeated concerns have been raised about delays to the project since then.

Addressing the meeting this week, Cllr Wilkinson said that he has aware of the refurbishment of Westhoughton Town Hall, set to take place in November.

But he asked what this would mean for the library and Carnegie Hall.

Cllr Wilkinson said: “Where do we stand then for phase two of the civic building in Westhoughton?

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“Because great, town hall’s being done, but when will be in a position to get the Carnegie and the library really motoring.”

In response, the town hall meeting heard how the current works set for Westhoughton Town Hall needed “care and attention".

No further plans were announced for the library or Carnegie Hall.

But council officials said they would continue to work with regeneration officers to look at what was possible for phase two of the scheme in Westhoughton.