Caption: inspecting the new equipment at Grangemouth Town Hall - Cllr Iain Sinclair, portfolio holder for Education, Gary Smith, Team Leader, Provost Robert Bissett, and Rhona Jay, Education Service Manager

Two of Falkirk Council’s arts venues have recently seen an upgrade thanks to an investment of £90k in both Grangemouth and Bo’ness Town Halls.

New truss systems have been installed at both venues (a motorized system in Grangemouth and a manual hoist in Bo’ness). The work at Grangemouth now allows better and safer access in the roof space to allow access to the motors for maintenance and functionality.

The work will also allow for companies to use aerial flying within the halls, already used in the recent production of ‘Pretty in Pink’ and Project Theatre’s production of Matilda in May.

In addition, equipment from the former Falkirk Town Hall (FTH) has been transferred and reused in the venues to improve the audience experience and the range of events that can be accommodated.

More capacity and reusing equipment from FTH

Lighting desks, lights, seating and sound systems were relocated from FTH and can be used by both local and professional touring productions.

The improvements mean that Grangemouth now has a venue capacity of 490 seats theatre style and is the largest venue in the Council area. Capacity at Bo’ness will increase to 420 seats.

Councillor Paul Garner, spokesperson for Economic Development said: “The benefits of the work are two-fold – firstly, the variety of productions we can stage will be far more varied bring a better selection of performances to local audiences and secondly, we can meet more expectations of both local groups and touring companies in terms of what they need.

“The public will notice the improvements that have been made by reusing equipment from FTH and the capital investment in these two venues.”