PLANS are afoot to reopen Dolgellau’s defunct courthouse as a heritage centre for the town.

The grade II listed building was shut down last year despite a hard-fought campaign to keep the legal facility open, causing a lot of consternation in the region.

Local politicians, legal experts and residents did all they could to keep the magistrates’ court open but their calls ultimately fell on deaf ears and the courthouse was closed and put up for sale.

Now, after several months on the market, the courthouse may pass into the hands of the local community to open a new facility for residents and visitors alike, after the estate agents were not able to find a suitable buyer.

Elizabeth Summerfield, chair of the Dolgellau Partnership, was reticent to commit to any firm plans for the historic building, valued at approximately £100,000, but admitted that lots of options were being considered.

“We’re delighted that the courthouse is being offered back to the town and we are in the process of carrying out a feasibility study to check that we can sustain and maintain this exciting but big responsibility,” she said.

“We want to make sure that it’s used for something that is going to benefit the town but as you can imagine we’ve got a lot of work ahead of us.”

One option is to reopen the Tourist information Centre, which also closed last year, in the old court building, the Cambrian News understands.

The new heritage centre could also hold a model railway of the Dolgellau’s old railway system which passed into the town council’s possession last year.

Currently town councillor Jo Checkley is co-ordinating a team of volunteers to run a temporary local information centre in places such as the Rotary Bookshop.

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