VILLAGERS can find no common ground to settle an argument that is threatening to split their small border community.

The dispute began when the Garway Hall Committee submitted a planning application to Hereford-shire Council to build a new community centre with sports changing rooms.

However, the reason the proposal caused such a stir was not because of the size or design of the building.

The controversial aspect of the application was to site the new hall on the village common - an abuse, one resident claimed, of rules dating back nearly 1,000 years.

Diana Higginbotham, one of 40 people to write a letter of objection, stated: "It is common land and it is illegal to build on common land, in accordance with very long established laws which date back to the Domesday Book."

Fellow villager Brian Thomas expressed his wish to keep the area open for public use.

"This urban type of development with its light and noise intrusion and car park has no place in open countryside and will clearly be a blot on the landscape," he said.

"In addition, it will interfere with the commoners' rights and rights of the general public to walk and enjoy this wonderful oasis of tranquillity."

But Paul Brice, architect and agent for the application, said the site was the best on offer.

He wrote: "We have spent some time explaining the options for a new community hall to replace the tired tin village hall in Garway.

"The community voted for a scheme to build a new hall on the common, opposite The Moon public house, at the rear of the cricket pitch

"It was widely believed that the site was owned by the parish council, but we have so far been unable to prove this. This complicated the process of applying for planning permission for the scheme, so we looked for alternative sites.

"We had no luck, so the hall committee decided to submit a planning application for the preferred site anyway."