DePree vs Rochdale: Hopwood Hall Showdown

0:00On April 28th, a former U.S. filmmaker named Hopwood Dupree is heading to the high court to battle Rockdale-Burrow Council over an old, stately home, called Hopwood Hall in Middleton, Greater Manchester. He's been trying to restore it since 2017 under a deal that led him by it for just one pound if he met certain conditions. But the council locked him out last November after saying he fell short, and now a two-day trial is locked in for the 29th and 30th of. September, that original agreement from 2017 hinged under pre-proving a solid business plan to keep the hall thriving long-term. He claims he stepped to the rules, poured seven years into repairs, but tension spiked when the council's development agency got more hands on this. Year. The council points the consultants who said his plans wouldn't attract enough funding, public or private, despite all that time. They've already sunk 557,000 pounds into essential fixes from 2017 to 2024, with historic

1:00England, chipping in nearly 1 million pounds more. Now they're dropping another 700,000 on Roof Work and Studies. Dupree fires back in his legal docs, disputing the need for a full business model, and arguing his planning permissions were enough. The council wants those two days in court to grill his witness statement, calling parts of it shaky and in need of cross-examination. This showdown could decide the hall's fate, and who's calling the shots on its future, with both sides dug in over promises made and money spent.