First hurdle passed for Town Hall’s multi-million-pound regeneration

Welshpool Town Council has confirmed that the first hurdle to securing millions of pounds of grant money to make the Town Hall fit for the 21^st century has been passed.

The 150-year-old iconic centre piece has fallen into a sorry state in recent years, bleeding tens of thousands of pounds of tax payer money just to keep it functioning.

But there has been a determined push by the Town Council to not only save the building, but to transform it into a multi-purpose facility fit for generations to come.

In a September briefing statement provided by the Town Council last night, it was revealed under the heading ‘Town Hall Transformation’ that “National Lottery Expression of Interest accepted; full application to be developed over the next 12 months”.

All applicants requesting a grant of £250,000-£10 million have to submit a 1,000-word Expression of Interest before making an application. It is believed the Town Council work will cost in excess of £4 million – money that the local authority simply doesn’t have.

The next phase is to submit a development phase application when solid designs and plans will be finalised.

If the development phase application is successful, Welshpool will receive funding and have up to two years to develop a detailed project proposal for the delivery phase application. The delivery phase is when the capital work and project activities are carried out.

Meanwhile, at a recent meeting it was reported that only one pitch inside the Town Hall’s market area remains available for hire.