AN APPLEBY education centre could soon receive a £500,000 boost to help renovate the building and extend its training facilities for young people in the Eden Valley.

Appleby Training and Heritage Centre, which provides a range of vocational courses for young people, has been offered £250,000 from the Rural Regeneration Fund and £250,000 from the European Regional Development to renovate and extend the training facilities at the centre.

Trustees of the centre will meet in the next few weeks to decide whether or not to accept the money.

General manager John Weir said that the decision would depend on whether or not the centre could secure funding from Eden District Council to pay for the renovation work while the grants were being processed.

"We have to be sure that we can afford to pay the builders when the work starts as we have to claim the money when the project is completed. We could not afford to do that on our own and we are asking Eden District Council for help with cash flow," said Mr Weir.

The money would go towards extending the centre and making it more accessible to disabled people. A new stretch of track would also be built to allow train carriages to be moved more easily around the former station's rail yard.

When completed, Mr Weir said the upgrade to the centre would provide a "huge boost for Upper Eden."

"If you live in Kendal or Carlisle you have got a college on your doorstep and it's not very conducive to a young person's education to have to make a 70-mile round-trip every day. We are not in this to compete with other colleges, however, and would like to build better relationships with other colleges through technology such as video links," said Mr Weir.

Eden District Councillor for Appleby Bongate, Coun Ella Langan, said that the renovation of the centre would be "absolutely fantastic" for the town.

"The centre has been a brilliant resource for the town ever since we got it about ten years ago, and it's not just for young people, adults use it too. This is excellent news for Appleby," she said.