RESIDENTS clamouring for a community hall held crisis talks in Ipswich after a ten year battle reached stalemate.The Pinewood and District Community Hall Association are desperate to get the £400,000 facility built but moves have ground to a halt in a legal wrangle over land-lease issues.

RESIDENTS clamouring for a community hall held crisis talks in Ipswich after a ten year battle reached stalemate.

The Pinewood and District Community Hall Association are desperate to get the £400,000 facility built but moves have ground to a halt in a legal wrangle over land-lease issues.

In a further twist to the saga, long-standing member Ian Grimwood resigned from the association because of the project's continued setbacks

Other members vowed to fight on despite frustration over land lease issues yet to be resolved between landowners Ipswich Borough Council and Pinewood Parish Council.

Mary Dixon, 68, of Woolverstone Close, who has served on the committee for seven years, confirmed there was talk of disbanding at the recent annual meeting but they decided to continue.

"We think we are getting somewhere then all of a sudden something happens and we are thrown back.

"We have been battling with Ipswich council for some time and they just can't come up with a yes or a no. That's why we were in danger of folding.

"However, we are continuing with the association and hope we are going to start fundraising again. When you have got so far it is a shame to let it all go."

A third of the money has already been pledged and planning permission granted for the hall backed by parish council and earmarked for an area of waste ground in Belmont Road.

Mrs Dixon said: "When you think Pinewood covers a vast area, there are no facilities at all."

Although Pinewood is in the Babergh area the land belongs to Ipswich council and Pinewood has employed a solicitor to help with negotiations.

An Ipswich borough spokesman said: "We wrote to the parish council some time ago and we are still waiting for a response."

A third of the money has already been pledged for the building which would have one large hall to be used for activities such as badminton and line dancing and two smaller meeting rooms for adult learning sessions, slimming clubs or mums and toddler groups.