ANGRY villagers in Harvington are to ask Church of England officials to stand by an offer to sell them a plot of land for a new village hall.

The village hall committee, acting on what members thought was an agreement in principle by the Diocesan Glebe Committee, which manages church land, to sell the land alongside the present village hall and neighbouring school, had raised £12,000 towards the project.

Then at the recent annual meeting of the village hall committee, chairman John Redman announced that the glebe committee had withdrawn the offer after long negotiations which the village hall committee thought were about to be successfully concluded.

"To say the news was received with shock, dismay and anger is putting it mildly," Mr Redman said. "People at the meeting were very upset and felt that the glebe committee had let the village down."

He stressed that it was the glebe committee which was the target of villagers' anger, and not the village church of St James, which played no part in the negotiations.

Mr Redman explained the existing village hall on the south side of the school was on a tight site with no room for redevelopment or parking which was why, 12 months ago, the hall committee looked at a new site on the north side.

The first setback came when a neighbour put in a counter offer for the site, the bid to include the opportunity for the school to buy the land.

Mr Redman said the village then had an offer from the glebe committee's agent, of another site 15 metres away from the school for security and access reasons, but now the committee has decided not to sell.

"We had what we thought was as near an ideal site as we could get in the heart of the village and we intend to try and persuade the glebe committee to go ahead with the sale," Mr Redman said.

Kirstie Lee, spokeswoman for the glebe committee, said: "The glebe committee are very sorry that the village hall committee is so disappointed by what has gone on."

She explained: "There are some very complex access issues that need to be resolved before they can consider selling to anybody."