THE campaign to save Swanage's Victorian bandstand has now received pledges of £26,000.

Alan Houghton, who established the Save Swanage Bandstand Group, has also confirmed that a bank account in the name of Friends of Swanage Bandstand has been established, and that Swanage Town Council has agreed to let the campaign group be involved with its bandstand committee.

Mr Houghton explained: "We will only call in the pledges when the council says yes to restoration.

"The next step for us is to gain charity status and apply for Heritage Lottery funding, then we will get our bandstand back."

Swanage Town Band recently preformed at the bandstand, which was supported by large crowds. A number of performances by the band will take place at the venue throughout the summer.

Mr Houghton said: "I would like to thank all those people who have pledged and I hope we can take the total higher still."

Earlier this year council officials announced they'd be filling in the sunken site if no firm plans to replace it had been proposed by the end of August. This created a wave of local protest, including a public meeting on the bandstand's future attended by more than 200 people.

Swanage Town Band have also backed calls for the bandstand's renovation.

A statement from them said: "The band feel that the bandstand is a unique part of Swanage's heritage."

The town council says the roof of the bandstand was declared structurally unsound during refurbishment works in 2012, which were taking place to address serious storm damage it had sustained previously.

At that time the council also pointed out that if the sunken site had to be filled in, the performance area at Prince Albert Gardens - where Swanage Town Band also play regularly - could be improved.