A BRAND new hall looks set to stand proud in a Herefordshire village, ending five years of anxiety.

Cusop Parish Council won outline planning permission for a new village focal point, to be built at Lower Mead.

"We have tried for five years to do the best for our parish and each time come back to this site for which now we have received a satisfactory price," Neville Jones, member of the parish council and village hall community project committee, told council planners.

A decision to find a better hall was made five years ago when the present one became too expensive to maintain. A questionnaire in the village also revealed it was too restricted on its small site and in a dangerous position beside the busy B4348, Cusop to Hay-on-Wye road.

The outline planning application is for a hall, probably single storey and car parking, to be built near houses on land at Lower Mead.

"The proposal can be supported given the need, relative proximity of the site to existing built development at Cusop and that safe means of access can be provided,'' stated council planning officers.