Spare Lottery heritage cash to be spent restoring town centre buildings

MANSFIELD District Council will use more than £220,000 of spare cash from a Lottery grant to restore its historic buildings in the town centre.

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The Watson Fothergill facade, seen here on the left of the Old Town Hall in Mansfield, will be restored

The National Lottery Heritage Fund awarded the authority just shy of £850,000 seven years ago as part of a programme focusing on maintaining heritage assets across the country. The money was intended to be distributed among privately owned properties, but not enough applicants came forward to ask for the money, meaning nearly a quarter of it has been left unallocated and unspent.

With the only other alternative being the money going back to the National Lottery, a decision was agreed at a council meeting on Monday, that the money should remain in Mansfield and be spent on council-owned properties.