PROPOSALS have been submitted to Wigan Council to convert a historical chapel into a restaurant.

A change of use for Tyldesley Top Chapel has been published on the council’s planning applications list.

A decision on the application is expected to be made on September 4.

A neighbourhood consultation period for the application has started and will end on August 7.

In May 2016 the council listed the chapel as an asset of community value (ACV).

Cadence Festivals Limited, owners of the grade II listed building, informed the council that it had accepted a bid for the chapel in February – the company has never revealed who the buyer is.

At the time the Journal revealed that he proposed sale would go through unless a community group expressed an interest in buying the Astley Street building before March 26.

Before that deadline historian Peter Tyldesley and Tyldesley councillors Joanne Marshall, Stephen Hellier and Nazia Rehman said they were setting up the Tyldesley Building Preservation Trust to oversee the acquisition and operation of the building on behalf of the community.

Tyldesley Top Chapel was built in 1789 and was bought by Cadence Cafe CIC for £50,000 in September 2015 after the firm was awarded £188,200 by the council's Deal for Communities Investment Fund to enable it to be used as a multi-purpose community hub.

Yet the following May it was marketed by Monton-based Barlow White estate agency, looking for offers in excess of £210,000.

The council claimed in December it will be paid back 'just over £71,000' of the money it gave to Cadence Festivals Limited through a 'legal charge' once the building has been sold.

The chapel contains a historic John Nicholson organ which dates back to 1859 and is on the National Pipe Organ Register.

The Journal has been unable to contact representatives from Cadence Festivals Limited about the change of use application.