FUNDING for the restoration of Richmond station is nearly in place after a huge donation.

The Gunnerside Estate had offered to give £50,000 to the project to turn the station into a commercial and community centre for the town if it could be matched from elsewhere.

That has now been achieved - leaving the trustees with about £120,000 to raise for the scheme, the cost of which has risen from £2.6m to about £2.75m.

The trustee in charge of fundraising for the project, Dave Dalton, said: "We couldn't believe how generous the Gunnerside Estate was when they came forward with their idea, as we'd never received a private or corporate donation on such a scale before."

A spokesman for the Gunnerside Estate said it fully backed the project as it would create a focal point for people living throughout Swaledale and beyond.

He said: "When we learned that the station charity had been so successful in raising most of the funds they required, we thought it might help them clear their final £100,000 hurdle if we were to donate half this amount, provided that they could match our contribution with £50,000 from their own supporters."

The chairman of the Richmondshire Building Preservation Trust, Jim Jack, said donations had come from all over the country and abroad, but most were made by people living locally.

"I was a bit worried that the local community might be suffering from donor fatigue, as we had already asked them to contribute to the station lots of times during the campaign," he said.

Building work is now under way on the project and, if all goes to plan, the former station should be open for business early next month.

Once complete, it will have a restaurant, a cinema, performance space, meeting rooms, a heritage centre, exhibition space, offices and food production units.

Trustee Donald Cline said: "The reality is that if you looked at our wish-list we are about £120,000 short - or we could cut corners and do it for zero borrowing."