‘Positive’ talks ahead of revised Old College funding bid

THE outcome of a revised bid to the Heritage Lottery fund to secure funding towards a £20 million-plus renovation of the Old College in Aberystwyth should be known next month, a cabinet member has said.

Cllr Alun Williams, Ceredigion council’s Cabinet member for environmental services, assets, transport and carbon management has said that a meeting between the university, stakeholders and officers from the Heritage Lottery Fund was “positive”.

The Heritage Lottery Fund sent three officers to the building last month to assess the revised application, Cllr Williams told members of Aberystwyth Town Council at a meeting on 27 February.

“Everybody there felt the meeting went really well,” he said.

“It’s impossible to say what the outcome will be, but we all felt they went away with a lot of information to help support the Old College project.

“The case has been made extremely professionally and everybody is positive.”

Cllr Williams added that the outcome of the bid is expected in April.

It was reported in the Cambrian News that the costs of the proposed project have already risen by over £1m before work begins on the renovation.

The redevelopment of the Grade I-listed Old College was initially set to cost £20.6m – but that figure has already risen to £21.9m.

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