MONEY originally intended for Monmouth’s Gateway project looks likely to be used for the upgrading of a church hall, new public toilets and the resurfacing of a playground.

When Section 106 funding from the development of the Croft-y-Bwla, Wyesham Infants School and Almshouses sites was allocated in 2014, a grant of £50,000 was given to the Gateway Monmouth project.

A meeting of Monmouthshire County Council (MCC) today could determine whether £30,000 of this money will be re-allocated among other projects.

If the recommendation is approved, £20,000 would go to upgrading and refurbishing St Thomas’ Church Hall, £5,000 would go to the Nelson Garden accessible toilet project and £5,000 to the resurfacing of Drybridge Park play area.

St Thomas’ Church Hall in Monmouth is undergoing a £500,000 project to completely upgrade and refurbish the church hall site. The hall, a Grade II listed building located in Cinderhill Street, is in need of modernisation and the proposed upgrades include a lunch club, drop-in support and a job club.

The Welsh Government has awarded a grant of £340,000 from its Community Facilities Programme towards this cost, on the basis that by 18th May the hall has all of the necessary match-funding in place.

Church and community members have raised funds, attracting numerous grants from local and national trust funds. When organisers at the hall requested funds from MCC, there was a shortfall in funding of £80,000. Since then the hall has obtained further grant funding of £54,500, and the current shortfall is £25,500.

The hall now needs to confirm that it has the full funding package in place by 18th May. Without this funding it is feared the Welsh Government grant offer could be withdrawn.

Since the award of the £50,000 grant in 2014, no progress has been made by MCC in developing the Gateway Monmouth Project around Monnow Bridge, or in seeking grant aid from external sources. It was later confirmed that there is no commitment within MCC’s Medium Term Financial Plan for the project and to proceed it would need to be self-funded.

In March, Monmouth Town Partnership Forum (MTPF) made an application to the Big Lottery for Stage One funding of £20,000 for the Gateway project. The application, which comes under the ‘Create Your Space’ programme, was submitted with the group hoping that the project could be ‘reborn’.

If stage one of the funding is approved, there is a view to submit a full Stage Two application for £1.97million to enable the full Gateway project to be implemented.

£20,000 of the original grant allocation to the Gateway project will be retained in the plans, in case the bid for Stage One funding under the Big Lottery ‘Create Your Space’ programme is unsuccessful.

A decision will be made at a meeting of MCC today (11th May).