The newly built Woodnesborough Village Hall has seen a six-month delay due to the “incompetence” of Dover District Council, says parish councillors.

Chairman of Woodnesborough Parish Council (WPC), David Woodward and Cllr Steve Hoskins claim DDC has taken too long to hand the hall back to parish councillors, after it took the venue over as part of a planning deal.

The former hall, which was “old and crumbling” has now been sold as a house, which means groups in the area will have to find somewhere else to go.

Construction on the new venue was completed in December 2014 and the building has been standing empty ever since.

Chairman Mr Woodward said: “That’s six months and no work has been done because we can not get DDC to transfer it to us.”

Mr Hoskins said: “It’s just been messed up by DDC planning. We’ve got something which has been a lot of effort, a fantastic thing for the village, and through no fault of our own it’s gone wrong.”

The developer of the new houses in The Street agreed to buy extra land and build the hall as part of a 106 agreement to give something back to the community.

Kentish Projects and the parish council worked together to come up with a design. Due to the size and expense of the final plan, an agreement was made that the developer would build the exterior and the parish council would complete the interior.

Councillors were then told that, in order to fulfil the 106 agreement the hall needed to be in DDC’s name.

Since handing it over, WPC has been unable to make any progress with the project because it was not legally theirs.

Mr Hoskins said: “DDC has decided that they need to have it in their name, even though we’ve done all the work. We haven’t had any help from them.

“The planning officer hasn’t done anything. They seem nervous of handing it over in case something comes back on them.”

"It’s a great amenity for the village who have wanted this for thirty odd years.” - David Woodward.

At a cabinet meeting, DDC voted on whether to hand the village hall back to WPC. District councillors supported the decision, subject to planning conditions.

Mr Hoskins said DDC had all the information it needed months ago, but the whole process had taken too long.

“The old village hall has gone. So now instead of having it finished and moving user groups into the new one, we have got a period of at least 20 weeks if they signed it off today. It just seems incompetent.”

Groups have been forced to temporarily use Eastry Village Hall, the church, or Woodnesborough Football Club.

The old hall has been sold as a residential property - with proceeds going towards the new venue.

Mr Woodward added: “It’s just totally wrong they should have to do this. It’s a great amenity for the village who have wanted this for thirty odd years.”

The site will include a village green and a play park. Inside will have ample storage space, toilet facilities, a main hall and meeting rooms.

A DDC spokesman said: “The council is fully supportive of the hall proposal and sees this as an excellent example of providing community facilities as part of a new development.

"We nominated the parish council in March 2015 to receive the new hall and surrounding amenity land on the understanding that all planning matters had been resolved.

"Not all matters have been concluded, but a very constructive meeting between all parties on Monday this week has resulted in an agreed way forward to transfer the hall and land at the earliest opportunity.”