TROWBRIDGE'S iconic town hall will remain open after councillors approved a grant of £30,000 to save the place.

At Tuesday's full council meeting, Cllr Graham Payne proposed that the town council added an extra £20,000, on top of the £10,000 already agreed, to keep Town Hall Arts and the town hall going.

After much debate, councillors agreed to give £7,000 in July, £6,000 in October and the final £7,000 in February 2019.

Going forward, a task and finish group, set up of councillors, will look at Town Hall Arts budgets and projections, ways to identify new income streams, produce written reports and find new ways of increasing the community's usage of the town hall.

Cllr Payne also put forward that the group finds ways in which the Friends of Trowbridge Town Hall and Town Hall Arts can be reunited to work together towards a common goal.

The Town Hall Trust is meeting tonight to confirm these new developments. If this agreement was not struck up, the town hall could have been closed for many years and Town Hall Arts would cease to be.

The full story will be in the Wiltshire Times newspaper on Friday.