HOPES were higher this week that the vacant Knighton Hotel premises may find a buyer soon, despite failing to be sold at auction.

“We are currently speaking to some interested parties post auction and we are hopeful that we will be able to complete a transaction,” the County Times has been told by Frank Shepherd of auctioneers RSM.

An update has also been provided by property company Colliers International which has been marketing the Knighton Hotel and its former sister Radnorshire Arms Hotel at Presteigne.

Hotels agency director Peter Brunt said: “There has been interest in both but no sale has been agreed. Various marketing and sales strategies are being explored for the properties, and we hope that we will be able to find a suitable buyer soon.”

Powys County Councillor for Knighton Ange Williams was pleased at the prospect that something might be happening at last, because of the effect the loss of the Knighton Hotel has had on the town since it closed last summer.

“It’s had a large affect on the town, leaving such a dark hole in the centre of the town, with no lights and nothing going on at night. It is quite depressing really,” she said.

“We were really looking forward, hopefully, to the sale at auction but nothing happened; although I am much more hopefully at the latest news as we really need something to be happening there.

“It is such a large and prestigious building in the middle of the town and we are hopeful that it will be a hotel again and provide accommodation or something that would benefit the town.

“There have been rumours about interest but nothing has come of it and we have no idea who might buy it,” Cllr Williams told the County Times.

The Knighton Hotel has been a social venue with facilities for meetings and functions, including live music having in the past hosted bands from The Troggs and the Nashville Teens to SPG and Those Naughty Lumps.

With a guide price of £375,000, the spacious Grade II-listed town centre building is believed to date from 1867 and includes a bar and restaurant as well as the function room.