A LOTTERY grant of £232,000 to build a new hall at Meldon, put on hold because of opposing views in the community, has been approved following an investigation by the National Lotteries Charity Board.

A spokesman for the NLCB said both sides had been given a fair chance to speak and following a 'painstaking and thorough' investigation it was decided that the grant could go ahead.

The money was put on hold in November last year when a row broke out over siting a hall for Okehampton Hamlets at Meldon.

Opponents to the scheme said the hall would be in the wrong place to serve the whole of the parish because the majority of the Hamlets residents lived on the other side of Okehampton.

But hall committee members claimed a parish appraisal three years ago revealed support for a replacement hall at Meldon.

In an attempt to meet the concerns of the opponents, conditions have been placed on the lottery grant.

It asks that steps are taken to increase involvement in the hall, particularly by Hamlets residents, and new committee members are actively sought from the parts of the Hamlets to the north and east of Okehampton.

The lottery spokesman said it was an unusual situation to find a community at odds over a project which had won funding from the lottery, but the board had looked at all the issues involved.

'Both sides have expected us to look into this properly and, in my view, we have been painstaking and thorough over it,' he said.

'We have come to a conclusion that the grant should be allowed.'

Meldon Village Hall committee said it was delighted its fundraising work would be able to continue well into the future once the new hall was completed, hopefully by February next year.

In a statement to the Times, members said although the delay had caused some difficulties for the committee, the resultant publicity had been a useful tool in raising awareness of the new hall among parishioners.

It is expected to continue housing the same functions as before, including whist drives, dances, harvest suppers, sports club activities and a youth club, plus many other functions which had helped raise money for a number of charitable causes.

The committee is planning to organise open meetings so Hamlets residents can come along and see for themselves how the hall is run and have an input into the development of ideas for use of the new hall into the 21st Century.

Committee vice chairman Michael Mew said approval of the grant was confirmation that everything had been done the right way and procedures had been followed.

'We do not see this as a victory — as far as the committee was concerned we had done nothing wrong and the lottery board's conclusion is proof of that,' he said.

'We would like as many people from the Hamlets to become involved in the hall as possible, and if they start doing that now, by the next AGM we hope to have some new members.'

But one of the leading opponents of the hall scheme Stuart Plant, who submitted a petition to the lottery board against the plan, said he was still of the opinion that the majority of Okehampton Parish residents did not want the hall in Meldon.

'Unfortunately we will have to live with it but I maintain that this will not be a hall for Okehampton Hamlets,' he said.