DAMAGE caused by a huge fire that tore through Derby's Assembly Rooms car park will cost "millions of pounds" to put right.
City council leader Paul Bayliss said the total cost was still being totted up but he added he was 100% sure it would be a seven-figure sum.
He said: "Fixing the damage will run into millions of pounds. That's the only thing we can say with certainty."
Last week, firefighters confirmed that the blaze on March 14 started in an air-conditioning unit on the top floor of the car park.
The council's chief executive, Adam Wilkinson, said it caused a great deal of damage. He said: "All the mechanical and electrical installation in the roof of the car park was destroyed and will require complete replacement.
"Significant repairs to the structure of the upper level of the car park will also be needed.
"We've got an awful lot of experts in to look at temporary fixes and long-term fixes. Options will then be drawn up and presented to cabinet.
"In around two-and-a-half weeks we should be able to say what we're going to be doing."
Mr Bayliss revealed the cost would only be partly covered by the council's insurance company.
However, he said any costs that would have to be met by the taxpayer would not be achieved through redundancies or cuts to services.
Mr Bayliss said: "Some of the cost will be covered, some of it won't. There will be an excess to start off with. We will need to negotiate a settlement with the insurance company.
"They should cover most of it. When we know how much the council is liable for, we will have to look at the capital budget and say 'instead of doing this we'll use that money to do the Assembly Rooms first'. It might be something slides down the list of priorities.
"That's the way you avoid impacting services."
Last week, the council said it expected the Assembly Rooms would be closed for about two months as a result of the fire.
Mr Bayliss said he was confident that timeframe would not slip.
He said: "The discussions that are taking place are complex. However, we think we put in a reasonably generous timetable to allow us to have those complex discussions and options drawn up."
On Monday, Derby Live announced more shows had been rescheduled or cancelled as a result of the fire.
Full details can be found at www. derbytelegraph.co.uk.
