Bishop's Waltham's historic Educational Institute is to be sold - but a new hall could rise from the ashes.

The village's parish council, whose members are trustees, has applied to the Charity Commission for permission to sell the 100-year-old building in Bank Street.

If approval is given, the parish council will invest the proceeds as a permanent endowment to fund a new hall.

The parish council will now draw up a scheme for the Charity Commissioners to consider.

Parish council clerk Rex Blundell, also clerk to the trustees, said: "The Educational Institute has served the people of Bishop's Waltham well for 100 years.

"But it is considered the time has come to move forward to a new scheme that will provide a new development for the good of the residents of Bishop's Waltham for, perhaps, another 100 years."

The Educational Institute is valued at £300,000 and any planning application will have to retain its external features.

But members of the Education Institute's steering committee are unhappy with the latest twist in the long-running dispute over the building's fate.

Campaigner Martin Eustace said: "I want to see the building refurbished and back in public use.

"There are a lot of grey areas. The council is telling us it will cost hundreds of thousands of pounds to refurbish but there has never been any assessment of the cost. It's all pie in the sky, hearsay."

Mr Eustace is also curious where a replacement building for the Education Institute - bequeathed to villagers - could go in Bishop's Waltham.

He was one of many villagers to object when the council announced its intention to sell the building earlier this year, blaming costly structural and refurbishment problems.

For decades community groups have used it as a meeting place. But the council said falling demand from local groups was also partly to blame for the Institute's demise.