Biddulph Town Council has taken on the management of three buildings in the town, with the hopes of ensuring they are "accessible and well-run" for residents.

The council will now manage Biddulph Town Hall, Biddulph Grange Country Park's visitor centre, and the town centre's Bus Hub.

The changes were announced by the authority on Monday (7th September), and discussed at a meeting of the town council last night (Tuesday).

Managing Biddulph Town Hall - where Biddulph Town Council is based - has been a long-standing ambition of the town council, with the building previously being managed by Staffordshire Moorlands District Council.

Work can now begin on improving the buildings for residents, with discussions on the improvements for Biddulph Grange Country Park's visitor centre taking place at last night's meeting.

Outlining the work that needed to be done, the town council's chief officer, Sarah Haydon, said the building had looked like "something out of Indiana Jones".

She said: "We have signed a lease for the visitor centre, but there is an enormous amount of work that needs to be done. It was like something out of Indiana Jones, with cobwebs everywhere.

"Before we can let anybody go in there, we have some issues to sort out over the coming months, but I'm hoping we can move forward with it quite quickly so we can get it open."

Biddulph's mayor, Cllr John Jones, added: "Money has been allocated to do this work, so we can make the place usable, then set about improving it and making it more eco-friendly."

Announcing the changes, a spokesperson for Biddulph Town Council said: "Biddulph Town Council worked to support residents throughout the Covid pandemic, but we also kept our other projects going too.

"In the past couple of weeks we have taken over the management of the Bus Hub, Town Hall and Biddulph Grange Country Park Visitor Centre.

"Town Councillors wanted to make sure that these buildings and services were accessible and well-run for the people of the town.

"It will take us some time to get these buildings open and usable for you. The Visitor Centre, for example, needs a re-wire and lots of work to make it safe.

"We will provide more updates over the coming months!"