ALCESTER Town Hall will benefit from some much-needed care and attention, thanks to plans to replace a set of pillars in the building.

An application to replace four pillars in the ground floor room of the Church Street hall and fit steel replacements has been made to Stratford District Council.

Treasurer Nick Dearling said the pillars, which they believed had been added to the 17th Century building in the 1920s, did not have great structural significance but replacing them was part of a general upgrade of the building and would help improve disabled access for guests.

"When people come in to use the hall the first thing they see is the four pillars, which means the downstairs is not in keeping with the rest of the building," he said.

"We thought if we removed them from the downstairs room it would make it useable for meetings and events with slide shows so elderly people would not have to go upstairs."

He said replacing the pillars would increase the useful area of the hall but they were taking the project one step at a time.

"First we need to make sure we can get permission - we think it will cost about £10,000 with the refurbishment of the downstairs hall so we would look to raise the money," he added.

"It would not cause too much disruption as it's not a large job so we will work around the bookings that have already been made for the hall."