NATIONAL Lottery chiefs yesterday confirmed they will help save one the region's landmark buildings.

The Heritage Lottery Fund approved Harrogate Borough Council's renewed bid for £6m to help it restore the Royal Hall.

Together with £2m from the council, it means the £8m restoration project is likely to start this year, with the building reopening for public use in spring 2007.

Lottery fund director Carole Souter said the hall, designed by Frank Matcham and opened in 1902, was steeped in history and an important community resource.

She said: "The finalised plans will serve to protect this wonderful historic building whilst enabling it to reopen to the public."

The £8m will pay for extensive restoration, and make it possible to accommodate 800 people in the stalls and grand circle.

The upper circle, which has been closed for more than two years, will remain out of bounds, reducing the building's capacity from the original 1,200.

The chairman of the Royal Hall Restoration Trust, Lilian Mina, said: "Future generations will look back with gratitude at this wise and far-sighted investment."

Harrogate council leader Councillor Mike Gardner said the grant was a win for the whole district.

Additional funding from the Restoration Trust is likely to add to the £8m, and Coun Gardner urged the public to get behind the trust.

A relaunch of the Royal Hall Restoration Trust's fundraising activities will take place at 6.30pm on Thursday, April 7, at the St George Swallow Hotel, when president Edward Fox, who starred in such films as Gandhi, A Bridge Too Far and The Day of the Jackal, will urge residents to back the project.