Last updated at 07:11, Friday, 30 July 2010

A GROUP of campaigners who want to turn the old Harrington Infant School into an arts and heritage centre have been left frustrated and angry after the county council decided to auction off the building before they could get funding together.

FRUSTRATED: Arts campaigner Sheila Fielder

Sheila Fielder, of Wether Riggs Road, Workington, and Wendy Bailey, of Emerald Close, Salterbeck, have been campaigning for the centre since October.

They gained support from local residents, businesses and organisations.

In May a core group was formed to produce a business plan and to try to gain funding.

The group have so far received £1,600 from the local community – £800 from Harrington Marina Regeneration Action group, £300 from Beckstone Primary School and £500 from Cumbria Community Foundation.

The money has been used to pay for an independent valuation of the building and administration costs.

Mrs Fielder said: “We sent a pre application for funding to the Heritage Lottery Fund but it takes about nine months to get the funding so they wanted us to ask the county council to put the auction on hold.”

Cumbria County Council, which owns the building, received a business plan from the group earlier this month but has said that its auction will go ahead on September 2.

The campaigners have been told that they can bid for the building at the auction, but they say this will be impossible without the funding.

Mrs Fielder added: “We are deflated, angry and frustrated, especially as the building has been empty for so long and no one has bothered about it and as soon as we took an interest it was taken away.

“An arts and heritage centre would really benefit this region.”

The group have been told by the county council that if the building does not sell at auction they would be free to try again with their campaign.

Mrs Fielder said: “I don’t know if we would try again. We have put so much work into this, hours and hours, we have done everything that we can.

“A lot would depend on the other people involved and how they feel about it.”

A county council spokesman said: “In the current climate of lottery funding, we believe it is unlikely that the project and the business case put forward would be successful in its bid.

“We have looked at the proposal but we believe the community's interest will best be served by selling the building, otherwise we will just be dealing with further delays and be in the same position we are in now in a year's time, only having spent more money in the meantime.”

First published at 19:27, Thursday, 29 July 2010
Published by http://www.timesandstar.co.uk