PORTHLEVEN Town Band has thanked its supporters after being given permission to alter a Grade Two listed former Methodist chapel to pave the way to it becoming a community rehearsal space.

The Old Sunday School off Chapel Terrace was built in 1841 and was previously a Methodist School Room, and before that a Wesleyan Chapel. In 2002 it was given permission to be converted into residential use and has been used as a holiday let ever since.

The application to replace a window with a door, where there originally was an exit, was granted by Cornwall Council planners last week. It is the only change that is needed to make the building suitable for community use.

Posting on the band's Facebook page, the board of trustees of the Porthleven Town Band say they are in the process of securing this iconic building to be returned to the community for the musical development and progress for the people of Porthleven.

"We'll post more news as soon as we have it but suffice to say the prospect of being in the middle of our village, with such wonderful neighbours is tremendously exciting and we thank everyone who has supported us so far," it said.

Proposing the change, the design statement for the application says: "The proposed change of use from residential to assembly & recreation will give the applicant, The Porthleven Town Band a wonderful central position for practice use as part of its community spirit.

"The Porthleven Town Band is an important part of the fabric of the Porthleven community, & this proposed change of use will give a building which they can use with pride & ambition for concerts & practice.

"The lovely thing about this application is that it returns the building back to community use for the people living in the village, with such little physical change that no one would know that it had been changed.

"But the village would know because now the village is going to reuse the building rather than it be used as a holiday let.

It adds: "What better use for The Old Sunday School than return it to its previous use for the village community.

"We would not think anyone can object to this proposed change of use because it is such an improvement on the existing holiday let use, and now back to community use.

"Taking this into account we can only consider that this is an improvement on the current usage, and can only be advantageous to the village as a whole."

A heritage impact statement for the application said that the original approvals granted permission to convert the building into a dwelling, which allowed an existing door opening on the SE side to be converted into a window. This current proposal is to amend the existing window on the SE wall back to a door with fanlight over.

"This would give the proposed assemble and recreational community use a necessary fire exit whilst returning to the original design," says the statement.

"By allowing a fanlight over this would continue to give natural light to the room inside.

"This is the only physical change to the building fabric that is proposed. But by doing this minimal change will enable the change of use to assembly and recreation, with the attendance increase in numbers, and comply with the building regulation requirement of an additional fire exit. The main entrance access does not change."