Keswick's best known building looks set to be sold for more than £200,000 as part of council cost-cutting measures. 

Allerdale council is to consider selling the Grade II-listed Moot Hall in Market Square to a charity. The move would save the council around £8,700 a year. 

The Battersby Hall Charity first tabled its bid to take over the Moot Hall last year. 

The Lake District National Park Authority at present has a long lease to operate a tourist information centre from the landmark building. The agreement still has 11 years left to run. 

The Moot Hall needs around £180,000 of repairs, which the council will not be liable for if it agrees to the sell-off. 

Councillor Bill Jefferson, Allerdale council’s tourism leader, said there was no danger of losing the tourist information centre or the activities that happen at the Moot Hall. 

He said: “This makes commercial sense for Allerdale and for Keswick.

 “It is a Keswick asset, and it is a national asset as well, but the important thing is is that it’s kept in the right hands.” 

The Keswick-based Battersby Hall Charity has been looking for a hall in the town for three years. It sold the Battersby Hall in Church Street in 2012. 

Its secretary John Green said: “One of the aims of the hall is that it should be for the use of education and there is no greater use than the tourist information centre. So we are very, very delighted that they will stay.” 

Linda Furniss, of the Keswick Tourist Association, welcomed the move. 

Allerdale council’s ruling executive will discuss the proposal when it meets on Monday. 

A report to councillors states: “The Battersby Hall Charity contacted the council to ask to acquire the building in 2014. Without a hall, since the sale of their previous site, the charity felt that the Moot Hall meets their objectives and also provides Keswick with a meeting place in the heart of the town with funds provided by local benefactors and donations.” 

The three-storey Moot Hall, which features on many postcards of Keswick, has a distinctive slate roof and walls made of local stone. Its clock tower dates back to 1813.