THE views of Okehampton residents on the possible redevelopment of the market hall into a cinema will be heard at a public meeting next week. The meeting has been organised by opponents of the idea. Three separate petitions which were created by user groups have been amalgamated into one single petition which has attracted almost 1,000 signatures. Caroline Shaw, of Okehampton Auctions, which has used the market hall to hold monthly sales for the last 70 years, said users of the hall had been promised a meeting with the town mayor to discuss the issue since before Christmas. As a date for any such meeting had yet to materialise, the opponents of the cinema scheme have taken the matter into their own hands and organised next week?s meeting. On December 15, mayor of Okehampton Cllr Tony Leech told the Times: ?I personally want to chair a meeting of all users of the hall. We need to facilitate a way of moving forward.? Cllr Leech said he had been working with the town clerk to arrange a meeting with all users of the council?s buildings, not just the market hall, and had been close to finalising a date, before he learned of the plan to hold a public meeting. Cllr Leech responded to critics who accused the council of not wanting to see a market in the town: ?I don?t know how many times we have to tell people. We have never said we want to get rid of the market, but it is how we continue it for the best of everyone in the town.? Mrs Shaw said Okehampton Auctions, together with the existing market hall traders and Okehampton and District Canine Society, had recently raised the issue with West Devon and Torridge MP Geoffrey Cox. Mrs Shaw said all the groups were long term users of the building and felt that they ?all contribute to the whole structure of our market town?. She said she believed the hall was an ?inappropriate location for a cinema?. The meeting is being held in the Charter Hall, next Thursday, March 2, at 7.30pm. Town clerk Don Bent said as far as he was concerned, the mayor would still be inviting all users of the council?s buildings to a special meeting to discuss their concerns in the coming weeks. Mr Bent said he had continued working to find possible alternative accommodation for the present users of the market hall. However, Mary Wilson, chairman of the dog training society which holds obedience classes in the hall on Monday evenings, said they had looked into the possibility of meeting at Okehampton College or Okehampton Primary School, but regarded these options as ?pie in the sky?.