Funding hope for chapel restoration
A SOCIETY is celebrating victory after a council said it would reconsider £5,000 funding to help restore a chapel to its former glory.
Members of Bourne Preservation Society heard the decision at a Bourne Town Council meeting on Tuesday when councillors agreed to send the issue back to the finance and general purposes committee to discuss again.
Society chairman Jack Slater is delighted with the result, considering the committee had recommended a fortnight ago that the council should not provide funds towards the cost of restoring the Chapel of Rest, in South Road, Bourne, which the council owns, until a lease is signed.
He said: "We saw this as a bit of a success and are pleased that the council has taken the decision to look at this again."
The council's chapel working party will meet with the society on March 15 to discuss matters further.
Mr Slater said the next step in the right direction is to apply to become a trust, alongside the society.
He said: "We are waiting for Architectural Heritage Fund to have some of its documents updated and approved by the Charity Commission, before we can apply.We were ready to apply in October, but because of this we shall have to wait."
Once the society has formed a trust, it will be entitled to apply for an options appraisal grant from the heritage fund, which supports groups with charitable status that are trying to protect historical status.
Society committee member Jonathan Smith said the proposed 5,000 from the council would be towards the appraisal grant.
He said at the council meeting: "This would cost around 15,000 with the heritage fund offering a grant of 75 per cent."
A grant would allow the society to employ surveyors and structural engineers to put together a plan to look at the building's intended uses and see what repair work would cost.
The society is keen to sign a lease this year to take on the historic building to renovate it. Councillors also agreed for solicitors to meet and draft a lease for the building.
The preservation group and council have been passing a pre-lease agreement back and forth since June 2008, when the council first announced it was planning to hand over the chapel to the society.
The chapel was given Grade II listed status after the town council threatened to demolish the building in 2006. It needs extensive repair work at an estimated cost of 400,000 to be restored to its former glory.
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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