TALKS over moving an electricity sub-station and clearing a major hurdle to the restoration of the 400-year-old St Katherine's Barn have reached deadlock.

Ledbury and District Society Trust is looking at the Grade II listed building as its next major project.

The trust would lease the building for a "peppercorn rent" from owners Herefordshire Council and then look to raise finance for the work.

But the council's attempts to secure agreement to relocate a neighbouring sub-station, ahead of agreeing the lease, have met with failure.

Water running off from the sub-station has damaged the timbers of the barn and the council says it needs to be moved to allow access to restore them.

Sub-station owners GPU Power UK, a part of the former MEB, say moving the sub-station, which is crucial to maintaining supplies to the centre of Ledbury, is a major undertaking.

It has given a rough costing of £15,000, saying a new site will be needed, new equipment and significant cabling work.

"We have reached a bit of a deadlock," said GPU Power UK spokesman Michelle Dancox, "To move it is not of any benefit to us, it will have to be a chargeable job, the £15,000 is a ballpark figure, it could be more than that."

She said the company was obliged to maintain supplies throughout the construction of a new sub-station and the job has been estimated as needing three to four weeks work.

"I know our people are in touch with Herefordshire Council, it is coming up with something that everyone is happy with," she said.

The trust has previously restored the Burgage Hall to community use and resited the former Burgage House to Church Lane, where it is now the Butcher Row House Museum.

Mary Winfield, chairman of the trust's planning and environmental group, said it is very keen to take on the project for the benefit of Ledbury.

"We feel it would be a project that is so worthwhile, it is a listed building in a prominent position, we would like it to be a feature and put back into the state that it was in," she said.

"The Alms Houses, St Katherine's Hall, the Master's House, now the doctors surgery, and the barn were all part of this medieval complex, one of the most important bits of Ledbury.

"At the moment this one is sadly derelict, it will depend on whether GPU Power UK will see this as an exercise in public relations, in that they could be doing something to enhance the conservation area."