A VIBRANT community hub will be created in a hall that Witney Town Council had planned to sell off.

Langdale Hall will be the new home to Inclusive Care and Education Ltd (The ICE Centre) which supports young people with learning disabilities, after the council reversed its decision to sell the building.

Though The ICE Centre will be the building’s tenant, the plan is to have Langdale Hall as a broad church – with a far-reaching potential to serve community groups and organisations.

Jill Bull, of The Ice Centre, said: “The team is looking forward to bringing its services to Witney.

“We will be able to continue to provide much needed independent services for our current users, who are very excited about the move and will now have the opportunity to expand and offer services to many more people.

“We thank Witney Town Council for its support and for working with us for the good of West Oxfordshire”

The council had planned to sell Langdale Hall, in Market Square, to raise money to be put towards refurbishing the town’s Corn Exchange – a project that was completed in 2015.

It was put up for sale valued at more than £750,000 in September 2014, but the council’s failure to sell the hall, coupled with the acquisition of alternative funding for the Corn Exchange, led it to explore options for bringing the building back into community use.

A number of community groups used the building before it was put up for sale and will be able to express an interest in operating from it once The Ice Centre takes over the lease.

Interest in running the hall had previously been expressed by several charities and groups.

The council decided that The Ice Centre, which had been operating from a building in Carterton, could run its base from the hall in Langdale Gate.

The ICE centre had been given notice on its lease in Carterton and was urgently looking for another hub.

Building work to improve the hall is now under way and expected to be finished by the end of the year.

The team at the The Ice Centre will move into Langdale Hall early next year and is hoped it will be officially opened by Witney MP Robert Courts.

Ms Bull said: “This is a golden opportunity to not just be what we are now, but to grow."

Leader of the town council, Toby Morris, added: “I was pleased to gain support in the retention of the Langdale Hall as a community building and very pleased that our discussions with The ICE Centre have resulted not only in Witney Town Council achieving that objective, but in ICE finding a new home.

"I have every confidence The ICE Centre will flourish in its new home.”