Crunch time for Town Hall future, but there is a problem!

With Welshpool Town Council readying a bid to apply for a huge grant that will kick-start the multimillion-pound transformation of the Town Hall, a slight glitch that could scupper plans has arisen.

Officers are preparing their bid for National Lottery funding that will be used to turn the historic centrepiece into a facility fit for the 21st Century and beyond.

But at this week’s Operations & Development Committee meeting, it was revealed that there is no actual proof of ownership showing that the Town Council is responsible for the building.

Town Clerk, Richard Williams, said that their legal team was addressing the issue, but admitted it wasn’t ideal with a potential deadline of May 4 to submit the bid.

“The biggest thing we are finding at the moment is proving ownership of this building,” he said.

“We are having difficulty locating the deeds for the Town Hall so we may need to do statutory declarations to prove to the Land Register that we do own it.

“We have looked in various places and will continue to look. We have got the lawyers working on it.”

He added that his team was working through the 28 supporting documents that go with the bid which is expected to be around 20,000 words-long.

Surveys conducted two years ago showed an urgent need for work on the Town Hall, with the project expected to cost in excess of £5million initially.