MUSICIAN Fish is backing plans to revitalise Haddington’s Corn Exchange.

An open meeting to discuss the future of the building, which is currently undergoing repairs, was held last month. One of the major proposals is to help transform the Corn Exchange into a modern venue for music, theatre and drama.

The building is currently covered with scaffolding as work is carried out to deal with roof timbers affected by dry rot, as well as to repair and replace flashing. East Lothian Council expects the work, which cost £38,800, to be completed early next month.

Now, ex-Marillion frontman Fish, who lives just outside the town, could lend a hand with the plans for the building’s future.

Martin Hayman, from Haddington’s Community Development Trust, which is keen to take over the running of the venue, said: “Fish came along to the meeting, which was fantastic, and expressed a desire to get actively involved.

“He is very keen to get involved and open a lot of doors for us through his contacts.” Another with a music connection was Callum Maguire, from the town’s Lamp House Music.

Mr Hayman said: “We have secured funding to help deal with and start the process of upgrading the facility in terms of acoustics, staging and lighting, which will enable us to use it as a good live music venue.

“This opens the doors for a series of live music events. We’ve had a good response from promoters.” Profits from those concerts will then be ploughed back into the building, with further improvements lined up to benefit the local community.

One of the earliest changes could be for the name of the building to appear outside it or on it to give the venue greater prominence.

Forty-two people were at the meeting in the Court Street building, representing 16 community groups.

Mr Hayman stressed that one of the main focuses was to increase community use of the facility.

Last year, the building was in use about 30 per cent of the time.

The building includes two halls; known as the front and back halls and Mr Hayman said he hoped minor changes could mean the two halls could be used by two different groups at the same time.

A council spokeswoman said: “The Haddington Corn Exchange is a well-loved and well-used facility in the town.

“The Haddington Community Development Trust has approached the council to take on the management of the Corn Exchange and discussions are currently ongoing about the feasibility of this option.”