A contingent from Helston Town Council is to travel to Westminster later this month as part of a continued bid to free up restricted funds.

Deputy mayor Tim Grattan-Kane and councillor Dave Potter will join town clerk Chris Dawson in London on August 16.

MP Derek Thomas has arranged a meeting with advisors to the Ministry of Housing, Community & Local Government, to discuss the best forward on the money that came from the sale of 3 Penrose Road back in 2012.

Due to conditions placed on the building by its benefactor, John Passmore Edwards, in 1897, two thirds of the £165,000 sale price is restricted by an act of parliament that states the money can only be spent on “scientific and technical instruction."

The council has spent the last six years trying to find a way around this act, in order to spend the money in the most beneficial way possible, without restrictions.

Mr Dawson told councillors when they last met: "They have asked for lots of advance information, so hopefully they'll be able to help us come to a solution."

He added that the council had suggested video conferencing, to avoid travel expenses, but the officials wanted to speak face-to-face in the first instance.

The building, originally a Science and Arts School, then Helston County Secondary School known as the "Green School" for the colour of its uniforms, became a community centre in later years before it was sold to the Cornubian Arts and Science Trust (CAST). It is now being painstakingly restored into improved community facilities for art-based events, along with a cafe, and rented artist studios.