A chapel with plans in place to transform it into a holiday let, cinema and restaurant is on the market after Brexit and the pandemic hit a community's bid to carry out the redevelopment.

Cemaes Community Interest Company (CIC) secured permission in 2018 to convert Capel Bethlehem. This included a restaurant premises with up to 100 covers, a further mezzanine dining area, an 82 seat cinema, heritage centre, and two retail units. There were also plans to convert an existing dwelling - Ty Capel - into a one bedroom luxury self-catering unit

They obtained some funding towards the Cemaes Bay project in 2020 and this year looked for other operators to get on board.

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But now the site has gone on the market with estate agent Dafydd Hardy for £400,000. The CIC said grant funding of the scale required has been very difficult to source post Brexit and the pandemic. There are claims Wales is £1bn worse off after losing EU funding following Brexit - with lost grant money not fully replaced by UK Government.

The CIC added: "Our planning consent window to progress the development project also closes in November 2023. Selling the property now opens up the opportunity for new investment which we sincerely hope will achieve elements of our original plans for the benefit of the community.

Cemaes Community Interest Company (Cemaes CIC) has an opportunity for interested commercial and non-commercial organisations to take a lease on space at its proposed landmark Capel Bethlehem Cemaes site
Capel Bethlehem in Cemaes site

"Grant funding awarded to us from the Wales for Council for Voluntary Action, Cronfa Padrig Trust, Anglesey Charitable Trust and Magnox Ltd will be returned to them as part of the sale completion and Cemaes CIC will continue to operate as a business with the aim of contributing to the positive future development of Llanbadrig Parish and its residents."

It is now hoped a developer can come in and take on the ambitious regeneration project.

Estate agent Dafydd Hardy said: "Ty Capel & Capel Bethlehem comprises of a former chapel building with an attached two storey cottage constructed around 1856. Planning permission has been granted (November 2018) for the development of the now redundant buildings, in a project which encompasses the embankment leading down to the car park below, to provide a substantial leisure and retail complex which will be of enormous benefit to the local community, the wider locality and also providing potential for an excellent long-term investment opportunity for the purchaser of this site."

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