RESTORATION plans for the Brunner Guildhall will step up a gear with £75,000 set to be spent on the project.

A grant worth £47,500 has been awarded from the Architectural Heritage Fund for the scheme, which will see the historic building become a community venue, while Winsford Town Council will spend £27,500.

The idea is to spend the cash getting the project up to a stage where a design for the building's refurbishment can be produced, ahead of a grant application to the National Heritage Lottery Fund.

At £60,000, the bulk of that cash will be spent on consultancy costs – including architects, quantity surveyors and drainage specialists.

A further £10,000 will be spent on professional fees – including engagement with the community – while £5,000 will go towards the cost of town council staff working on the scheme.

It is proposed that, following approaches to architects, companies will be presented with a project brief and invited to make presentations about how they would carry out the work to a town council steering group.

Those meetings are currently expected to take place in June.

The scheme will be discussed at Monday's Winsford Town Council meeting, which will take place online.

Councillors will nominate two members to sit on the steering group, alongside the town mayor, chairman and deputy chairman of the finance committee and clerk Mark Bailey.