A LOTTERY grant of £232,000 to replace a village hall at Meldon has been frozen because of divided opinion in the community.

The money was announced last April but could be withdrawn by the National Lotteries Charities Board if a row over where to site the hall continues.

Residents opposed to the scheme say the hall will be in the wrong place to serve the whole of Okehampton Hamlets because the majority of the population live several miles away from Meldon.

But trustees of the Meldon Village Hall charity say a parish appraisal carried out three years ago revealed a lot of support for a replacement hall at Meldon and no-one came forward with any alternative sites.

The South West Office of the National Lotteries Charities Board said this week the grant was on hold while it looked into the situation.

A spokesman said: 'We are well aware of the divided opinions locally about Meldon Village Hall's development plans and we are, of course, concerned about this.

'While we are looking into the situation the grant is on hold and it is not appropriate to make any further comment at the moment.'

It is a condition with grants from the lottery that work on projects must start within a year of the award being announced, but it was not an absolute rule that the money would be withdrawn at the end of March, said the spokesman.

Planning permission was granted by Dartmoor National Park for a replacement to Meldon's dilapidated hall at the end of last year despite some local objection from hamlets residents and members of the Dartmoor Preservation Association who felt the development was too large for a hamlet the size of Meldon.

Lizzie St George, a former member of the village hall committee who is leading the campaign against the hall, said it was wrong that the committee had applied for the money on behalf of Okehampton Hamlets.

She said Meldon was a very small community and most of the hamlets' population lived on the other side of Okehampton which had also been earmarked for all the new development — the Okehampton Showground or an area next to the proposed new school site would have been a better choice.

She said: 'The hall charity has been set up to serve the hamlets but I don't believe this is being done by building a new hall at Meldon.

'It is not in the right place — most people would have to come through a congested town to get to it.

'When I conducted my own appraisal 83 per cent of people said they had never even been to an event at Meldon Village Hall.'

She said it was unlikely the hamlets would get another lottery grant in the future because it was not large enough.

Ms St George had to send a petition to the lottery board in order to get hold of the business plan and lottery application because she claimed she had been denied this by members of the hall's executive committee.

But chairman of the hall committee, which now has charitable status, Courtenay Heard said there was nothing to hide and all members had been allowed to see the documents if they wished.

He said: 'We started talking about a replacement hall at Meldon five years ago and being a member of the committee Lizzie St George was fully aware of this.

'It was only after we got the lottery grant last year that we started getting any opposition.

'The parish appraisal was sent to the majority of people in the hamlets and there was overwhelming support for a new village hall on the site at Meldon.'

Mr Heard said a lot of work had been put in by the committee members, including raising funds of almost £20,000 towards the project.

'It seems a few people want to ruin it for the community,' he said. 'It has been a very upsetting time for the committee.'

Committee member Michael Mew said it was true that most of the members on the hall committee lived at Meldon but that was because the hall had had been there for 75 years and it had been run by people who were interested enough and could give enough time to it.

He said when enquiries were made to Dartmoor National Park about building a hall on the showground they were told the lottery board would look more favourably on replacing an existing hall on the same site.

'Meldon is only two minutes from the showfield anyway,' said Mr Mew.

'Nobody came up with any alternative sites and this appeared to be the easiest way to get a new hall for the community, but now it looks as though the community may lose the opportunity.'