THERE is one community centre that residents in a New Forest village would dearly love to see developed - but it is not the one they are set to take their vicar to court over.

While the vicar of Hordle is being hotly challenged over plans to develop a new £500,000 church hall, villagers are rallying behind their parish council's attempts to develop a new community centre up the road in Vaggs Lane.

For 13 years the Hordle Community Association and Hordle Parish Council have been campaigning to give the village the desperately needed facility.

But last December their hopes were dashed when New Forest District Council refused their planning application.

But the community centre campaigners have refused to give up the fight and they will appeal against the council's decision.

Community association secretary and parish councillor, John Moss, said; "I think that when the community requires something as much as we do with this centre, the government takes a sympathetic approach.

"We need it. We are a village of over 5,000 people and all we have is one tiny hall. We do not have an all -purpose community centre."

New Forest District Council refused the plans because they included the building of a separate bungalow on Green Belt land which goes against local planning policies.

A date for the appeal hearing has not been set, but people can comment on the scheme by writing to the Planning Inspectorate, Room 3/08b, Kite Wing, Temple Quay House, 2 The Square, Temple Quay, Bristol, BS1 6PN, by no later than June 10.

Meanwhile, villagers in Hordle are set to do battle against the vicar of All Saints' Church, the Rev Michael Anderson, and his plans to construct a new church hall on the graveyard.

They claim the scheme is too large, too expensive, in the wrong place and would cause massive road safety problems in Hordle Lane.

Residents are set to challenge the vicar and the Parochial Church Council at a special church court hearing.

That hearing, with an independent Chancellor of the Winchester Diocese in charge, will be held in public at All Saints' in the next couple of months.