Bridport Town Council has been successful with its first stage bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), giving the Council the green light to develop its Town Hall Heritage and Conservation project.
The project has been a long standing objective of the Town Council, and will aim to restore this important building and make it fully accessible with a new ground floor exhibition and meeting space.
The Heritage Lottery Fund has awarded a first-round pass* which includes a grant of £19,500 to develop the project plans further. The second-round application will be requesting an HLF grant of £600,000 towards the overall costs of the project, which are estimated to be just over £1million.
Exciting News
Charles Wild, Town Council Leader and Chairman of the Town Hall Working Party said.
“This is very exciting news. The Town Hall restoration project is a long-standing ambition of the Town Council. We knew that we had an excellent bid, put together by our Town Clerk, Bob Gillis, building on the work of his predecessors, with the help of Town Surveyor Daryl Chambers and Crystal Johnson, project manager for the highly successful Fra Newbery event earlier in the year.”
Accessibility Important
Bob Gillis, Town Clerk said:
“The large number of people attending the Fra Newbery exhibition at the Town Hall earlier this year, and the comments received, showed how much people are impressed with the design of the building and how closely it is associated with Newbery. For many people, including many who live in the area, this was the first time that they had been inside the Town Hall and their comments showed once again the importance of making the building fully accessible. Now thanks to the Heritage Lottery Fund and with the support of Dorset County Council and West Dorset District Council, the Town Council has an opportunity to restore this important building to the centre of civic and community life in Bridport.”
Wonderful opportunity
Nerys Watts, Head of Heritage Lottery Fund South West, said:
“This first-round pass from the Heritage Lottery Fund provides a wonderful opportunity for Bridport Town Council to fully develop their plans for restoration of the Town Hall. Although this does not guarantee that at second-round an award will be made, HLF will offer the Town Council full support in taking their application further.”
* A first-round pass means the project meets HLF criteria for funding and that it has potential to deliver high-quality benefits and value for Lottery money. The application was in competition with other supportable projects, so a first-round pass is an endorsement of outline proposals.
However, a first-round pass does not guarantee the applicant will receive a grant although the chances of receiving a grant are high the second-round application will still be in competition for funding, and no money is set aside at this stage. Having been awarded a first-round pass, the project now has up to two years to submit fully developed proposals.’
Website: Heritage Lottery Fund.
The major works in the project will be:
- To re-open the Ground Floor creating a new accessible public area with flexible usage, which links directly with Bucky Doo Square;
- To remove and relocate the existing toilets elsewhere in the town centre, reversing detrimental alterations and additions. West Dorset District Council has agreed to undertake and fund this work;
- Within the new ground floor area, a lift will be installed providing access for users with disabilities, prams and pushchairs to the first floor;
- To repair the existing stairs to give additional circulation to/from the upper floor;
- On the first floor, it is the intention to enliven the existing interior and upgrade existing amenities so as to encourage and facilitate increased community usage / access and appreciation of the Fra Newbery paintings.
- To upgrade the energy efficiency of the building.
- To research and undertake remedial and preventative conservation work for the Newbery designed interior scheme and paintings in the main Council Chamber.
- To develop and adopt a conservation management statement to ensure future good practice in the maintenance of the heritage assets.
- The timetable for the works will see the second stage bid submitted in August 2009 and, if successful, work starting in Spring 2010, with completion in early 2011.
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Are they going to refurbish the bell tower for [url=http://www.bridportradio.co.uk/content/view/305/148/]the Bat[/url]? It can get quite cold and cramped up there waiting to take the shot.
This is outrageous!!! I was not consulted at all!!!
£19,500 to develop project plans further… Well is suppose it’s money well spent if the current project plan is to spend £600,000 and achieve sod all apart from take away toilets, build a lift to nowhere and preserve some deeply uninspiring daubings. Oh and lets not forget – “”develop a conservation management statement”” – that’ll be the pay off for the person who is writing the funding applications.
About bloody time the p***ing thing was 15 mins fast this morning!
What happened to my idea of turning the whole building into a tit bar? Some people have absolutely no imagination.
Carlito, there is already a large erect nipple on the top of the Town hall and all the tits have moved up to Mounfield. But you are right we need a decent lads night out club.