A ROW has erupted over the rightful home of a plaque which commemorates the adoption of a warship named after the Lamerton Hunt. The plaque has been in Tavistock Museum for more than 15 years —but it should take pride of place in the new Lamerton Village Hall, claim local residents. But the museum claims it would be breaking rules and regulations if it were to hand over the item. During the Second World War local people raised money for the hunt class destroyer ship HMS Lamerton and for this, two plaques were awarded in 1942 by the Lord's Commissioners of the Admiralty — one to the rural district council and one to the urban district council of Tavistock. When the two councils were abolished and replaced with West Devon Borough Council in the mid 1970s, one plaque stayed in the former offices of the urban district council (the current town council offices in Bedford Square) and the other was later handed to the museum. Requests have been made by Lamerton Village Hall Committee and district councillor for Lamerton Robin Pike to obtain the plaque but it appears it is going nowhere. Cllr Pike said the plaque was acquired by an individual after the council reorganisation and donated privately to the museum. He said: 'With the new hall being built in the village, we thought it would be nice to have this plaque as the ship was named after the Lamerton Hunt. 'According to the museum they cannot release it because of their rules. It is a great pity.' Graham Kirkpatrick, who is a member of the Tavistock History Society which provides people to run the museum, said it was wrong that the village hall committee should be refused its request. Mr Kirkpatrick said: 'The hunt is still in existence in Lamerton so it is entirely logical that the plaque should be in the village. 'The museum has a very good artefact from the ship in the shape of a coat of arms so it does not really need this plaque.' Museum secretary Susan Davies said it was not the case that the committee was being difficult or unfriendly — it was just not possible to dispose of items that were donated. 'If we accept something into our possession the donor has the right to think the museum is a trustee of that object and will look after it,' she said. 'The museum is not in a position to decide off its own back to give something away.' Mrs Davies said museums were discouraged to offer items on permanent loan because of the administrative work involved if complications arose, but in exceptional circumstances a short term loan of three years was possible, which could then be renewed. She said it might also be possible to produce a replica of the plaque. 'If we obey the regulations we cannot agree to the hall committee's request — if we did do it unofficially and it became known about it would threaten the museum's status,' she said. Mrs Davies added that the ship was adopted by Tavistock after the town raised money for it and its only association with Lamerton was its name.