Appleby Town Council has agreed to contribute nearly £60,000 towards repair work at the town’s moot hall.
Minutes from the council’s finance committee showed that major repair works to the historic hall have been awarded via tender to AURA contractors.
The committee agreed that the council will increase it’s 20 per cent match funding to £58,626 towards the work.
It was stated the costing is non-binding at present but Historic England — which is funding the body of the work — needed confirmation that Appleby Town Council could fulfil its financial obligation.
Town clerk Karen Lowthrop is to meet with project architects Crosby Granger and councillors to discuss additional works not eligible under heritage action zone project funding.
In other matters at the council’s monthly meeting a police report updated councillors on incidents in the town over the previous month.
Cumbria county councillor Andy Connell reported to the meeting on county-wide matters. He said Cumbria County Council chief executive officer Katherine Fairclough left the authority for a new post at the end of June.
The position is temporarily being filled by John Readman. Gill Stewart took over on a permanent basis on August 2.
Mr Connell added that Cumbria’s Highways Information Asset Management System was launched on June 29; the aim is to simplify the reporting and follow-up of faults with a single “doorway” that is easy to navigate.
It is assumed that most reporting will be done online, though a telephone option remains.
He said the highways team assured him that they are still willing to make adjustments. He had successfully persuaded organisers to add grid referencing as an option for locating problems, along with post codes and the What Three Words phone application.
The council heard that work is set to start on August 23 to develop Pembroke Street in Appleby as a one-way system.
The next meeting of Appleby Town Council will be on August 18.
