A COUNCIL is hoping to secure £800,000 of funding as part of a £1 million scheme to convert the former Co-op in Longridge into 16 flats.

Ribble Valley Borough Council has applied to the Housing Corporation, the governing body for housing associations, to help fund the scheme and is hoping for good news from the Corporation when it makes its decision in the New Year.

The council's housing committee will receive an update on the situation and be asked to continue their full support for the Longridge Co-op scheme at a meeting on Thursday.

The council has pledged £200,000 from its house renovation grant budget, to be allocated via a local authority social housing grant to the housing association SPACE, for the first phase building of eight flats above Longridge Co-operative in Berry Lane.

But at a meeting of council housing officers and representatives from SPACE last month it was discovered from the plans and structural surveys that extensive work needed to be done on the roof and building before any conversion of the first floor could take place.

The scheme is expected to include 16 one and two bedroom general let flats on two levels, suitable for couples and single professionals.

It is hoped the scheme will go some way to solving the problem of affordable accommodation in the Ribble Valley. Many young people are being forced out of the area because house prices are too high.

The redevelopment of the old Co-op building is also pivotal to the regeneration of Longridge, according to an action plan created earlier this year.

Council housing officer Christine Grimshaw said that to boost the funding, SPACE had requested that borough councillor officers contact the Housing Corporation for advice about bidding for the £1 million scheme.

It also suggested that the shortfall of £800,000 could be found via the Approved Development Group (ADP) funded by the Housing Corporation and from private finance.

As Longridge Co-op Building is located within the Berry Lane Conservation Area, it formed part of a bid for Heritage Lottery funding earlier this year, to be used for external works to the building, including the shop frontages at ground floor level.

But the council was told in September that the bid had been unsuccessful, with Heritage Fund money allocated instead to Stockport, Wigan and Wakefield.