WITNEY Museum and Historical Society has failed in its attemptbid to buy the Langdale Hall and open it as a community asset.

The group stepped in with a bid to buy the building when the town council put it on the market last year.

It currently runs the museum at Gloucester Court Mews in High Street and wanted to create a new museum at the Langdale Hall and make it a hub for community groups like the Royal British Legion and Witney Army cadets.

Museum committee member Ian Petty said the museum had found a donor who wished to remain anonymous, to buy the hall at a cost of £850,000, but when they investigated they found it would not be a viable scheme.

Mr Petty said he had hoped for more support from Witney Town Council.

He said: “If the town council had shown more support I think the donor may have been convinced the project was viable.

“But to be honest I don’t think we had a look in. The council is committed to making the Corn Exchange a community hub. It always wanted to sell the Langdale Hall to a commercial buyer.”

The council needed the cash from the sale to pay for the repairs to the Corn Exchange which has recently re-opened.

It had already agreed a sale when the museum group applied to have the building registered as a community asset in December.

The bid has delayed the original sale by six months.

Now the council expects to complete the sale imminently and insist the buyers it has lined up intend to keep the building open as a community asset.