A DERELICT Monmouth chapel, named one of the "desperate dozen" neglected listed buildings in Britain, has won an award for its preservation and conversion.

The Grade II listed Cong-regational chapel in Glen-dower Street - empty since the mid 1970s - was highlighted by The Heritage 2000 campaign as one of the buildings in the country that should be saved.

And now the renovation and home conversion of the 19th century chapel has been re-warded by Monmouthshire county council as the most improved building in the county. Project director and architect Graham Frecknall said: "There was only one main problem with the building and that was the scale of the decay.

"It was that close to being lost forever that it would have crumbled if it had to go through another winter.

"The county council's conservation officers should be congratulated over their insistence that the building shouldn't be given over to any of the previous planning applications and waited for the right owner to come along to rescue this building with an acceptable scheme for its alteration."

The neglected building was stripped of all its internal woodwork features by a previous owner.

But it has been lovingly restored by new owner Tony Sully, who received the preservation award from Monmouth's Mayor Sue White.

She said it was a fantastic achievement that one of the town's best buildings has been saved.

Mr Sully, head of Interior Design at Glamorgan University said: "When I first saw the derelict building for sale in the early part of 2000, I was so taken that I rushed home and produced some basic plans within two hours.

"I felt that I could do something quite special with the available space." Mr Sully spent £500,000 on the restoration project, partially funded with a Cadw grant and took just over a year to complete.

The family, Tony and his wife Penny and children Jodie aged six, George, 13, and Daniel, 20, are still getting used to the large open plan environment which is divided into many different areas for living and working and playing.

Mr Sully said: "It feels great to be living in the project and living out a dream."