BRIDGING loans will be needed to fund the £650,000 renovation of the Corn Exchange in Witney.

Witney Town Council had planned to pay for much of the work, which began in November, with the £750,000 sale of Langdale Hall, for which a buyer had already been lined up.

But the sale stalled after Witney Museum and Historical Society petitioned West Oxfordshire District Council to register Langdale Hall as an asset of community value.

The museum now has six weeks to confirm it wants to buy the hall, and six months more to raise the money, delaying the sale and leaving the town council with a gap in its finances. It now plans to seek loans to pay for the renovation work.

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It has already paid a £100,000 instalment to contractors, but will have to look for the extra money in its reserves and seek loans from West Oxfordshire District Council or the Public Works Loan Board.

Town clerk Sharon Groth said: “We were hoping to have the capital cost from the sale of Langdale Hall by the time we put money into the Corn Exchange. If the museum put in a bid, or if any other community group puts in a bid, it puts things on hold until June, when we can sell the hall, so we would need a very short-term solution.”

She added that the amount of money needed went into “hundreds of thousands” but said the council was still working out the figure.

Information on the amount of interest that would be accrued on the bridging loans was unavailable.

Mrs Groth said it was disappointing the museum had sought the community asset listing when the sale of Langdale Hall was almost complete. She said: “If it had come in July, then the council could have stalled the Corn Exchange project, or the renovation could have gone hand-in-hand with the marketing process for the Langdale Hall.”

But Mrs Groth said the council was confident the Corn Exchange will reopen in May, although contractors have found that more work than expected is needed on the roof, which will increase costs.

Town councillor Alan Beames said: “There was a meeting before the quotes were given to us for the Corn Exchange to discuss what might happen if there was a delay in the sale or if there was no sale. Either way, the sale will go through and funds will be available that are needed for the refurbishment of the Corn Exchange.”

Ian Petty, the chairman of Witney Museum and Historical Society, said he had no regrets about the move for the Langdale Hall and wanted to work with the council to make the scheme a success.

He added that the museum committee was meeting the agents handling the sale of the Langdale Hall this week to discuss a possible bid.

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