A new group will be taking over the running of the arts and galleries at a town mill, bringing new ideas and fresh exhibitions.

The Malthouse and Courtyard Gallery spaces at Lyme Regis Town Mill was formally run by Town Mill Arts (TMA), but this was not proving financially viable and the company was closed earlier this year.

A statement was made in March this year on the TMA website, which said the ‘future direction of arts at the mill is not fixed’.

The Town Mill Trust decided to close TMA at the end of February with a team forming a Community Interest Company, which would be making a bid to run the galleries from April 1.

It has now been announced that, following different bids to run the gallery, the in-house team who has been taking on the role of running the galleries since the closure of TMA, will be officially appointed and will continue to function as Town Mill Arts Ltd, having sole responsibility for all activities based in the two galleries.

Ian Bark, a trustee at Lyme Regis Town Mill, said: “The best presentation and the one that fits best with us in terms of the long-term success of the gallery spaces was from the in-house team.

“It is the group of people who are the operational team at the mill, and they have been doing it for the last three or four months.

“They presented us with a really good vision of how they would like to see the space developed.

“It was run by TMA who had been involved for around five years. They had got themselves into a position where their expenditure balanced against their income which meant they were not viable, and the return was not significant enough to cover the real costs of them running the gallery.”

Plans are underway for new ideas for new exhibitions, linking with the many other businesses that call Lyme Regis Town Mill home. These include jeweller Lucy Campbell, Coastline, Town Mill Pottery, Sew La Di Da, Aromantique, Lyme Regis Brewery and Courtyard Café, as well as the working water mill where the town mill’s flour is made.

Mr Bark added: “The fine arts aspect will still be there, but there will be a wider range of artistic things happening.

“We are all very excited - it has been a wonderful opportunity.”

Members of the Lyme Regis Art Society are currently exhibiting in the two galleries until June 6.