COMMUNITY groups have joined forces to fight for the future of a historic building after funding was scrapped.

Richmondshire Community and Voluntary Action lost its funding earlier this year when a £1.4m four-year contract was given to Rural Action Yorkshire based in York.

One of the major schemes at risk is plans to restore and develop the Grade II-listed old grammar school in Richmond into a community hub. The group had been working on the plans for the past five years and over £155,000 in funding had been secured.

Now they are joining with the Richmondshire Building Preservation Trust, which is behind the hugely successful Station in Richmond, to try and ensure the grammar school plans do not fall by the wayside.

The new hub will provide facilities for the community and local voluntary organisations, and it was hoped it would help the voluntary group become self financing.

Chair Keith Hall said: “We recently secured a first-round pass from the Heritage Lottery Fund. Having successfully secured a grant of £155,000 and a further £25,000 from the Architectural Heritage Fund to take the project to a second stage bid, we now find ourselves in the position of becoming a trustee-led organisation with no paid staff and limited resources to progress the project.

“This project was part of our strategy to become independent of grants and become a sustainable social enterprise, so we are very disappointed that our grant has been lost at this time.

“Despite this set back, we are still committed to finding a way to make sure the restoration of the building goes ahead and that it’s brought back into use for the benefit of the community and the local voluntary sector.”

Now they’ve formed a transition committee to investigate transferring the project to the building preservation trust, so the next stage bid can be made to the lottery fund. The old Grammar School and Richmond Station are both major landmarks in the town, famous architect George Townsend Andrews of York designed both buildings.

Trust chair Ian Hepworth said: “The board are keen to take this project forward. It is ten years since we undertook the restoration of Richmond Station. This has been a remarkable success story and we have been looking for another worthwhile project for some time.”