The old technical collage, which went on to become the music centre in Ballymoney, has been considered for listing after DfC wrote to the council recently.
Correspondence was received from the Department for Communities (DfC) Historical Environment Division to Council on 29th November 2019, where they advised that they were considering a listing within the Borough.
The Music Centre, was originally constructed to plans by an architect called James A.Hanna in 1905/06 with further additions to the building made in 1914.
Starting life as the towns technical collage, it remained there until 1968 before moving to a new building a short distance across the road, know known as the NRC (Northern Regional Collage’.
The premises went on to become the Music Centre in the mid 1970’s until the year 2000. The centre closed completely in 2008 and remain vacant since.
The considered listing would be of ‘B2’ grade and two options were put before Councillors at Wednesday nights planning committee meeting, with two options. Either to agree to SUPPORT the listing or to OPPOSE the listing.
The Ballymoney Bubble understands that Councillors agreed option one to support the listing at committee stage.
A B2 listing is defined as, ‘special buildings which meet the test of the legislation. A degree of alteration or imperfection of design may be acceptable. B2 is chosen for buildings that qualify for listing by virtue of only a few attributes. An example would be a building sited within a conservation area where the quality of its architectural appearance or interior raises it appreciably above the general standard of buildings within the conservation area.’
