THE old Hatherleigh Town Hall could enjoy a new lease of life — if the local community wishes to retain it.

The premises will fall redundant once the town has a purpose-built modern replacement.

A public meeting of the Hatherleigh Area Project is being held on Monday, September 24 — but already there have been a number of change-of-use suggestions for the property.

During the past few weeks Charles Coffin, the Hatherleigh Area Project officer, has been sounding out opinions and the feedback is that people would like to see the building retained for a new purpose.

Professor Michael Winter, chairman of the Hatherleigh Area Project Steering Group, is also keen to gather opinions on the future of the old town hall.

One idea already floated by a number of people — including Professor Winter — is for a visitor centre focussing on the importance of farming to the town.

'I'd like to see something in Hatherleigh, whether it is in the old town hall or not that building, on our farming past and our farming present. 'Hatherleigh was built on farming and that was brought to the forefront with foot and mouth.

'We hope that will be behind us soon and farming will remain a corner-stone of the local economy.'

Professor Winter believed that any display should not be purely historic but be forward-looking.

'Farming has a very strong future and I'd like to see something that points to where farming is now. Therefore, I'd hope anything would be relevant to the present as well as the past.'

He said the advantage of keeping the old town hall for the community was its close proximity to the projected new one.

However, he also said conversely there was no point keeping something if it did not appear viable.

'There is no point saying just because something is there we will make use of it.

'It is very tempting saying there is a facility and we want to keep it at all costs. But we can only do that if the cost is right.'

Professor Winter said any ideas were at a very early stage and would depend on public opinion.

Then business plans would need to be worked out to see if any suggested scheme was financially viable.