A FUNDING application to refurbish Witney’s Corn Exchange has been turned down.

Witney Town Council bid for £1.8m from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) to fund the updating of the Grade II-listed building, in Market Square, after it closed suddenly in November 2011 after a safety inspection uncovered serious problems.

Stuart McLeod, head of HLF South East, said: “We recognise the historic importance of the Grade II listed Witney Corn Exchange and its important links to the town’s trading heritage.

“However, demand for our funding is high. Sadly, this means that we were unable to support every grant application we looked at on the day.”

The town council’s public halls committee chairman Roger Curry said: “We are working hard to get the hall open by the end of the year, even though we have been held up by a serious asbestos problem.

“Once the hall is open we will be launching other fundraising activities, now that we will not be getting the HLF grant, to continue the work on the hall in order to provide all the facilities people asked for when we held the public consultation.”

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