Bitter pill as campaigners fail to save Dispensary
LOTTERY CHIEFS BLOCK FUNDING
‘DEVASTATED’ campaigners have admitted defeat in the epic battle to save Ancoats Dispensary after lottery chiefs blocked their final bid for crucial funding.
The listed Victorian gem – on Old Mill Street – is now to be handed over to Manchester council for affordable housing, although town hall bosses say they will try to retain as much of its 19th century architecture as possible.
Campaigners had battled for more than seven years to save the heritage building, raising £1.1m to transform it into a new community hub.
But the project had relied on a further £4.3m from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) – and late last year the HLF announced the bid had been unsuccessful.
Now campaigners have confirmed the building has been handed back to its original developers, Urban Splash, which will return it to the council at the end of this month.
Ancoats Dispensary Trust (ADT) declared itself ‘devastated.’
“For the trust to have come so far and to fall at the final hurdle has been extremely difficult to accept,” added the statement.
Conservationists first began fighting to save the dispensary, built in 1873 to provide medicine to the impoverished Ancoats community, in 2011, when developer Urban Splash applied to demolish the crumbling building. In 2015 it was handed over to the Ancoats Dispensary Trust.
An initial lottery funding bid was successful and last summer ADT submitted plans to turn it into a community hub, including space for a cafe, fitness classes and a small community museum.
But in a fatal blow last October, the HLF rejected its crucial bid for gap funding.
Since then the trust has been in confidential discussions with the council and Urban Splash – and on January 29 the developer took back control of the building.
Manchester council, which owns the freehold and will take the building back at the end of February, is now in the early stages of drawing up plans for affordable housing on the site.
It is understood the town hall does not yet have detailed plans for housing on the site and it is not yet clear whether the homes will be social housing or ‘affordable rent.’