THE TRANSFORMATION of Abingdon's Guildhall will set back the council £2.1m, but the council tax precept will not rise.

Abingdon town councillors agreed the figure at a meeting at the historic building last night, in Abbey Close, pledging to rely on a district council grant plus a third party loan to raise the funds.

Dennis Garrett, chairman of the Guildhall Committee, said: "We have no wish to increase the precept. We recognise that if we are going to borrow money we need to consult the public of our plans. They have every right to know what's going on."

The Guildhall committee proposed a budget of £2,105,000, plus a potential extra £79,000 for optional plans which might not go ahead. 

Nigel Warner, town clerk, said the council would use "most, if not all" of their deferred grant from the Vale of White Horse District Council, which it was given in 2011 when it took control of Guildhall. 

Originally worth £1.2m, Abingdon Town Council has £1.09m left of the grant. The rest of the money will be raised by a loan, but it is undecided from who. 

Mr Warner said: "In a building of this complexity there is always going to be quite a lot of costs involved in improvement.

"There is not much scope for external funding because they tend to favour charities - they think councils have the funds. 

"We are considering raising a loan which would be limited to £1m. It would carry strict criteria to stop the repayment having an impact on council tax."

Councillor Neil Fawcett, who represents Caldecott and sits on the Guildhall committee, added: "The reason why we take the loan approach is because we should be aiming to come up with a scheme that would not mean having increased council tax precept. 

"Before the Guildhall's closure we were spending money on funding costs for a low level of usage. Our objective overall is to spend as much money as necessary to create a Guildhall that will be used by a lot more people, so that there is revenue.

"We can create a much better Guildhall and bring in more people. We have cut out everything that wasn't necessary so that savings will cover the repayment for that loan."

The council initially suggested a budget of £3.4m when they wanted to put a cinema in the building, but that plan was scrapped when attempts to bump up funds with a lottery grant proved unsuccessful.

Architects at the meeting ran through some of the planned changes to the building, which include a cafe and bar area, cinema projector unit and new entrance.

A spokesman from Lewandowski Architects said the Roycce Court entrance to Guildhall will be a "vibrant space with lots of glass" which has a "connection to the outside world."

The huge stage in the building would be cut off from the hall and turned into a storage room, with the lobbey doubling up as a performance area if it is needed. 

Plans to add additional community rooms have been scrapped. 

Mr Warner confirmed the cafe and bar would open "on a daily basis whether there's a function on or not."

Jim Halliday, who used to be a councillor and town mayor, questioned the committee over their plans to demolish the new disabled ramp outside the Roycce Court entrance. 

The council said they had not yet confirmed if a replacement ramp would be built, and that the layout of the old building meant it was tricky to make it wheelchair friendly.  

Revised plans for Guildhall have a publication date of January 27 2015. Abingdon Town Council will have to submit its plans to the Vale of White Horse Council for approval. 

If the plans get the go-ahead, work on Guildhall will begin in April next year, with a completion date of August. The 1960's Abbey Hall building would have work started in June 2016, for a May 2017 finish.