AFTER six years of talks Chepstow Town Council has finally agreed a £400,000 plan to renovate the historic Gatehouse with council tax-payers helping foot the bill.

Last week councillors voted to borrow £200,000 and use a further £200,000 from their reserves to pay contractors R and M Williams Ltd, from Pontyclun, to undertake essential repairs and install a spiral staircase.

The proposal was put forward by Cllr Ned Heywood. He explained that in order to meet repayments of £22,373.34 a year for 15 years, the council tax-payers’ annual contribution would rise from £54.08 to around £57.15.

Cllr Stephanie Dovey said: "I’m certainly not happy with any increase in the precept and if I’m honest I think something should have been done a long time ago."

Agreeing, Cllr Armand Watts added: "It’s going to look pretty poor when we announce we are increasing the precept to people who cannot afford their energy bills and are worried about their jobs. This is an unacceptable increase under the present financial crisis."

A rival proposal was put across by Cllr Martin Brady, which would have seen the council borrow £175,000 - but there were fears that if building costs increased the project would run out of money.

Cllr Hillary Beach, meanwhile, suggested not borrowing a thing or using a penny from reserves. She said the money should be raised by increasing council tax-payers’ bills to £131.16 a year.

In favour of a full renovation, Cllr Henry Hodges: "Now we have bought the ship, we are talking about shoving it in the water before tarring it."

Cllr Phil Hobson said: "At the forefront of my mind is the taxpayer and it’s the burden that you cannot expect the taxpayer to take. I was not in favour of a loan, I thought we could find the money through precepts.

"At the same time we had to bring the budget under control."

Cllr David Dovey said: "Although this is difficult, in a few years time when this building is right people will be proud."

Some councillors criticised the recent decision to buy the Gatehouse, as reported in the 'Free Press' last month, but Cllr Dovey insisted: "It was done democratically."

The decision on where the town council should move to while work is being carried out will be decided by a working party made up of the town clerk and Cllrs Hobson, Brady and Hodges.