THE fight to restore Newbridge's Memo goes on today after the art deco building narrowly lost out on the £3 million Restoration prize.

In a nail-biting final last night the Friends of the Memo went on a rollercoaster of emotions - joy at being selected as one of the final three, then getting down to the last two, only to lose out narrowly to the Old Grammar School and Saracen's Head in Birmingham.

But Howard Stone, chairman of the supporters' group Friends of the Memo, vowed: "We are not down in the mouth about it. There is disappointment but we are going to re-group and double our efforts. We started without Restoration and we can start again."

One member of the Friends of the Memo committee, Malcolm Jones, said that the disappointment will spur the community on to raise funds.

He said: "We started this idea about 15 months ago - it snowballed into this great cause, and I think by 2008 we could be well on the way to restoring it.

"There is no loser in this. We will raise the profile, we will carry on and we will get the money."