Herefordshire Council and English Heritage have opened talks over plans to turn the Master's House into a new library.

As part of the process, English Heritage is now formally looking into the council's proposal to upgrade the listing of the medieval building from Grade II to Grade II*.

This could help to unlock English Heritage and other grants for the project, which could cost hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Council cabinet member and Marcle Ridge representative Don Rule warned this week: "To start off with, we are not sure how much money we need, because the project hasn't been properly costed yet. I am optimistic, but there are still lots of surveys to be done."

The county's libraries and information manager Mark Warren met with the Heritage Lottery Fund last Thursday, for discussions on the project.

But Coun Rule said the council was still to make a application for Lottery money, and none so far has been promised.

Coun Rule said with roof and other surveys to be done to ascertain the precise age of the building, and with proper costings still to be made, he could not say when the council would be in a position to make an application.

The idea is that the Master's House, parts of which date back to the 15th Century, will not just house the library, but also the Tourist Information Centre and a "one stop shop" for Herefordshire Council.

The current library offers 125 square metres of floor space, compared with the 330-sq metres that, potentially, the Mas-ter's House could offer.

Unlike the Master's House, the current library in the Elizabeth Barrett Browning Institute cannot be adapted to meet disabled access laws that come into force in October 2004