RESIDENTS and parish councillors in Lindford have backed plans for a village hall on the Chase Road development site. But they took an opportunity last week to remind the applicants, Chase Road developers Charles Church and Bellway, and district council planners that they still think the wrong site has been earmarked for the hall. At a special public meeting, held by Lindford Parish Council (LPC) last Wednesday, fears were voiced that the intended site - in a corner of the development off Washford Lane - was too isolated. There were concerns among participants that this might encourage vandalism. This prompted discussion of the possibility of installing CCTV, bollards, fences and steel window shutters around the hall. Residents of Washford Lane were also keen to have an assurance from the planning authority that any improvement works to the road would not make it a main vehicle entrance to the hall. Provision for Lindford's first purpose-built village hall has been made as part of the Chase Road development since its early days, although it was originally hoped the building would be a more central feature. LPC has worked closely with developers on the specifications of the hall, which were subsequently incorporated into a detailed planning application now waiting to be decided by district planners. A local committee was also set up to formulate a business plan, showing how the hall would be run efficiently, and put this into practice. But LPC chairman Ian Skelton-Smith admitted last Wednesday that the parish council had "no more influence than an individual" on the outcome, adding: "We wanted the hall at the front of the development, but we cannot change it." Richard Plowes, of Washford Lane, asked councillors: "Are we going to do what the developers want because they are paying for it?" Fellow Washford Lane resident Scott Beavis, whose house is next to the planned site of the hall, added: "I moved into that house because I was told the field next to it would remain a field. Now it seems there isn't room for a village hall in the main part of this development so they (the developers) are going to put it in the field. "I'm not sure if I would prefer to have houses next door or a village hall with kids hanging around it at night. In every town, the community centre becomes the main hang-out for kids. I will have to put up a fence around my garden. It's unshielded at the moment, which is not a problem when the land around it is just a field, but kids could quickly turn that area into a football field. I don't want to be a 'not in my backyard' person, but I also don't want to be constantly phoning the police. The safety issues here are serious issues." But parish councillor David Perry, who was chairman of LPC when developer Martin Grant abandoned plans for a village hall on an estate it built in the village in the 1980s, told the meeting this could be the last chance to get one. He said: "This has gone on for so long and there have been so many sites looked at. This hall is in the wrong place, but if we turn it down now, young people will say in 30 years time: 'Why did they not get a village hall then because now there is nowhere left to build one?'" It was unanimously agreed that the parish council would not object to the proposal, but would submit a number of comments. These included: That the site should have been more in the centre or front of the development; that the main access to the hall should be through the estate and not rural Washford Lane, and that consideration be given to installing "dummy" CCTV cameras to act as a deterrent.
