A BIG investment into an iconic building is one of the things that has been proposed in the budget for the coming year.

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The cabinet at South Lakeland District Council will be meeting to discuss the upcoming budget on Wednesday February 10.

The biggest news for Ulverston from the budget proposal is the allocation of £217,000 from the capital programme to go towards Coronation Hall alterations and the relocation of Ulverston Town Council.

David Sykes, director people and places at SLDC said: "Part of this funding will go towards the relocation of the town council into the Brogden Street offices.

"But we still think that will leave around £100,000 for the Coronation Hall. This balance will be made available to Ulverston Community Enterprises as part of taking over the Coro.

"It's a provision in the budget but there's no specific scheme identified yet.

"What we are doing is making budget provisions so that when UCE take on the hall we would be able to provide some funding for them to make improvements."

This is news that Chairwoman of UCE, Judy Pickthall, welcomes.
She said: "To have £100,000 available to us would be excellent.

"We are looking at all different alternatives to develop the facilities.

"There are a number of things we need to do and we haven't finalised them yet but this is something we will be talking to the people of Ulverston about because we need to take into account the things that are important to them.

"I am grateful to SLDC for the amount that will be made available. It's a really good start for thinking about improving the facilities for the future."

SLDC Leader Councillor, Peter Thornton said: "Our commitment is to make sure the package that we hand over to UCE is strong enough for it to go into the future with confidence."

An increase in council tax by 1.99 per cent has also been proposed.

This equates to an extra £3.50 a year for Ulverston taxpayers.

SLDC Leader Councillor, Peter Thornton said: "I think this will be recommended to go ahead as we have kept it down for five years so there's been five years with no increases and during that time we have had increasing costs and also the government has told us that we have to put it up."

Despite the proposal for an increase in council tax car parking fees will remain the same.

Cllr Thornton said: "We find that if we keep them down more people use the car parks, the thought of putting something up to get more money is not always the case."