Councillors agreed that in order for the exterior structure of the historical Moody Hall to be preserved, sacrifices to the grade II listed buildings' interior heritage may have to be accepted.

Concerns surrounding the deteriorating building on Moody Street were discussed at Thursday's Congleton Town Council meeting of Community & Environment Committee, which was conducted via Zoom.

PC Iain Bell told the committee that a couple of individuals started the fire at the former Chapel Brook House Care Home, on Moody Street, last Monday after gaining entry through an unsecured window at the back of the property.

Nub News reported yesterday that Cheshire Police had arrested two teenagers relating to two deliberate fires at Moody Hall and Milford House, on West Street.

On Moody Hall, PC Bell said: "We've had it re-boarded up again, but we're really struggling with youths and people getting into the building and wandering around.

"It is rapidly deteriorating inside because it is constantly getting more and more damaged. We do need to consider rather than putting wooden boarding over the windows particularly at the rear of the property whether we can have it secured with steel shutters from the inside."

Moody Hall was once the site of Congleton's first girls' school founded by suffragist Elizabeth Wolstenhome Elmy and she also lived there in the late 1800s.

Susan Munro, Chair of Elizabeth's Group, stated that the group wanted assurances that the building wasn't going to be lost.

In July 2018, Cheshire East Council gave the current owner of the site Bhavinder Tamber, of Ownitshareit, Birmingham, permission to turn the site into 14 assisted living apartments to enable elderly or disabled people to live relatively independently.

The planning application contained conditions that the special character, architectural interest and the integrity of the grade II listed building was preserved.

In January last year, some minor changes were made to the plans and these were approved in June, however, in October detailed design documents were submitted to Cheshire East and these need to be approved before any development work can commence.

Cllr Amanda Martin told the committee that she had spoken with Mr Tamber following the recent fire.

Cllr Martin said: "He's very concerned about the building and has actually had people go round there today and put steel shutters on the back. He's had to replace the shutting 20 times, and, in the end, he decided wood wasn't good enough.

"The problem with the development is that he wants to turn it into old people's flats, in order to do that he wants to make changes to the interior of the building, but the Cheshire East heritage team are trying to make him retain the interior structures.

"He asked me to ask the town council to make a representation to Cheshire East, in order to save the building's exterior as it stands that they be more flexible with what he does with the interior because if things continue like this it will deteriorate further.

"The outside of the building is valuable, the inside is deteriorating and what's the point of holding things up to the point that the inside isn't saveable, it's just counterproductive."

Cllr David Brown stated that Cheshire East Council have a responsibility to ensure a listed building is kept up to standard.

Cllr Suzie Akers Smith felt that an option to consider purchasing the building like Bradshaw House should be retained if that suited the community and town council.

Cllr Martin responded stating that the owner was told that Moody Hall was valued at £1m and he wanted to proceed with the development as soon as Cheshire East approved pre-planning conditions.

Non-committee member, Cllr Robert Douglas, chair of the town council's finance and policy committee, felt that "irrespective of what the purchase price is, you're looking at a shed load of money" for Moody Hall to be refurbished.

Cllr Brown, who also isn't a committee member, added: "I know when we were looking at Bradshaw House, it was going to cost at least three times the purchase price to actually renovate the building, it's a big ask to ask the town council to purchase this property."

Councillors agreed that they would contact Cheshire East and ask the heritage team to consider allowing changes to the building's interior, which would allow development work to begin and prevent further deterioration.