The Alban Arena in St Albans is set to re-open after an almost four-month closure.

The arena closed its doors in December after asbestos was discovered.

St Albans and District council has now confirmed that the show will go on and the doors will reopen.

A spokesperson said: "The building has been handed back by the contractor following the remedial work.

Please note, as we understand it, the actual reopening day hasn’t been nailed on yet, although 1Life – who manage the building – are now saying May. We had previously said the late spring, so that fits in with that."

Residents have missed out on shows and some theatre-goers have had their shows cancelled three times which left them "disappointed".

Sadly for some residents some performances will still be cancelled coming up to May.

The Alban Arena team celebrated "the great news" of the reopening.

In a statement it said: "The great news is the venue has now been handed back to 1Life from St Albans City & District Council and the team are now completing a remobilisation of the venue to ensure it can return to operations.

"We anticipate the venue will now reopen from early May, which sadly means we must cancel one last set of performances covering April and very early May period.

"We have worked with all effected production organisations in an attempt to re-arrange new dates and / or also utilise our sister venue, The Eric Morecambe Centre, in Harpenden for all events effected.

"Subsequently all ticket holders will be contacted and automatically have their tickets moved to the new date, or offered a credit for future booking if preferred or a refund if this is in turn is not suitable."

The Albans Arena team described the backlog of refund and ticket re-allocation "unavoidable".

It continued: "After the previous 18 months of closures due to government invoked COVID restrictions and the facility being used as a vaccination centre we are compounded by the additional closure, which we are working tirelessly to fulfil.

"We appreciate the patience of those effected as we deal with a large volume of bookings and will endeavour to resolve all booking queries, credits and refunds as soon as possible.

"We apologise for the inconvenience, and ask you to be patient with our team and also thank you for their patience and understanding in what has been an extremely difficult period for many businesses and the arts in particular.

"Thank you so much for your patience."