Helston Town Council has given unanimous support to financially backing a grant bid for the town’s arts building – and with it came a suggestion to re-look at how to spend the proceeds of its sale.

The Cornubian Arts and Science Trust (CAST) had asked the council for a grant of £5,000 to support its bid for half a million pounds of Arts Council for England funding, with which to renovate 3 Penrose Road.

The trust wants to upgrade the public areas of the building on the ground floor, making it more accessible and bringing the old Green School assembly room back into use, as well as upgrade the community café, in preparation to host elements of the three-year contemporary art Groundworks programme for which it received a £500,000 grant in January 2016.

CAST chair Teresa Gleadowe told councillors: “I’m conscious we’re asking for support at a very difficult time; it’s the end of the financial year.

“We don’t need support right now, in terms of money on the table, but we do need a pledge. We have a wonderful opportunity and we don’t know when it will come again to make an application to Arts Council England. We had to apply to them for permission to apply!

“Now we have a very difficult scramble to get everything together in time.”

Mayor Gillian Geer said: “I would not think there’s any single person around this table who does not support a group of people in our town making it work and finding things for people to do.”

She added that she knew from personal experience working with the Epworth Hall that finding grants to update the physical bricks and mortar of a building was “almost impossible.”

At the suggestion of councillor John Boase, the council agreed to include half of the required money in its 2018/19 financial budget and the remainder the following year, after hearing that CAST would not need any funds until April 1, 2018 – and only if the Arts Council bid was successful.

Referencing the close connection between CAST and Helston Museum, councillor Dave Potter said he would also like to look again at how to spend the £108,000 the town council received when it sold the former community centre building to CAST.

Fellow member Mike Thomas agreed, but believed this should be after the local government elections in May, explaining: “I think it would take a long time to see it forward.”

A dozen members of the public attended the meeting in support of CAST’s bid, with the town council also receiving 12 letters.

These included a letter from Helston Community College art teacher Sarah-Jane Marsden who spoke of her “overwhelming support” for the trust.

She said that students had gained “pivotal” experience meeting with artists including Turner Prize winner Simon Starling thanks to the college’s close links with CAST, which also hosts an annual exhibition of year nine work and provides internships.

“Our incredibly positive relationship with CAST is one which brings our students, and staff, opportunities they could not dreamed of having, and continues to inspire so many of our young people in their journey toward a creative future,” she added.