CHIPPENHAM NEWS: MORE than £1million will be spent on providing an arts centre for north Wiltshire.

Plans are being drawn up for £1.2m improvements at the Pound Arts centre, in Pound Pill, Corsham, to transform it into a facility serving the whole of north Wiltshire.

The new centre, in the Grade II listed building, will be called the North Wiltshire Arts Centre at The Pound and chairman of the Pound Arts board Cllr Christine Reid, said work should start by the end of the year.

Cllr Reid said: "It's in the budget and the design work is under way and there is a board that has been set up with all party support."

Only small amounts of work have been carried out on the former school building since the district council took it on eight years ago and it will be given a full makeover.

Building work will connect the performance hall, in

the grounds of the centre, to the main building.

The former bike sheds and outbuildings will become individual creative arts workshops.

Cllr Reid said: "It will be doing a lot of outreach work across the district and it will be the only arts centre for north Wiltshire.

"There isn't really another arts centre in Wiltshire until you get to Salisbury so it's going to be a big deal."

She said there had been other possible sites for north Wiltshire's arts centre

but said: "Since the Pound was already there and had

some very good people running it this was the obvious place.

"At the moment there are thousands of people who pass through there every year.

The preliminary designs should be drawn up by next month and work should start by the end of the year.

The trust is hoping the centre can continue to function for most of the time while the work is ongoing.

Cllr Reid thinks the new centre will add an important facility for people in north Wiltshire.

"It's not high in people's priorities because it is put against things like housing and crime and so on but it is important to provide activities for young people.

"Anything that builds a sense of community and takes theatre and dance and music out to the villages where they get precious little in the way of professional arts is tremendous."