Blow to hall scheme as lottery grant refused
Plans to restore and update Madeley's Anstice Memorial Hall at a cost approaching £2 million have had a setback, with the Heritage Lottery Fund turning down a grant application which would have paid for the initial groundwork of the project.
The hall closed in February 2014 but amid a major local campaign it has since been brought back to life, holding concerts and community events.
However the Victorian building needs a thorough update and access improvements. It is now owned by Madeley Town Council, which plans to hand over the management to an independent charity, the Anstice Community Trust.
The town council's regeneration officer Andy Rose said: "Our funding application for restoring the Anstice has unfortunately been turned down by the Heritage Lottery Fund.
"Their letter indicates it was down to insufficient funds. We have been offered a meeting at the HLF regional office in Birmingham to go through the application which will identify where we could strengthen our bid if we decide to resubmit, which I think we will.
"Basically the West Midlands HLF has more applications for funding than it can meet from its annual allocation. So the bidding process is competitive as they cannot support every application.
"Heritage Lottery funding is awarded over two stages. The first stage seeks a development grant to work up a restoration scheme in detail. You then apply for a second stage delivery grant which secures the money for the actual construction works.
"We had asked for a development grant of £169,000 from the HLF. This would go towards the costs of a design team working up the project to a planning application level over the next 18 months, as well as paying for an in-house project manager and consultants to look at the viability of the project.
"You do however have to also give an estimate of what you think the actual restoration cost might be, which is also taken into account at stage one. We had estimated that the total HLF grant required would be around £1.8 million. This was based upon the preferred restoration option identified through local consultation."
