Museum bid for Cockpit site

A historic Mid Wales building once used for cockfighting could be turned into a museum about the practice, after a setback for the town council's plans.

The news came as members of Welshpool Town Council heard their original plan for the Cockpit building in the town had been rejected.

The council wanted to renovate the building and let it to Montgomeryshire Federation of Women's Institutes as its county office, while still allowing access to visitors, but this has been vetoed by Powys County Council.

Town council clerk Robert Robinson said owners NatWest and various county council departments had approved the town council's proposals to bring the empty building back into use.

However, at a town council meeting yesterday, he said he had received a letter yesterday from the county council's heritage conservation officer saying such a historic building should be used for exhibitions, particularly showing the history of cock fighting in Wales.

The county council was proposing a working group be set up to discuss the future of the building and explore that possibility.

But town councillors expressed their disappointment at the news.

Tony Harvey said: "We will have to see what the working group comes up with. We're not going to get anywhere by quarrelling with the county council. Let them get going and then come back to us and we'll tell them what we think."

Fellow town councillor David Senior said he was "bemused" by the decision.

"I hope if there are going to be additional costs to be incurred in the long term then the county council will be underwriting the bill."