A ‘MISTAKE’ made by council surveyor almost seven decades ago has been corrected by North Dorset District Council.

On Friday, councillors agreed to hand over all of the land at Pulham Village Hall to the parish.

Following an “error” made by Sturminster Newton Rural District Council in September 1952, only part of the site was transferred to the village with the district council still retaining ownership of its car park and access.

In November, Pulham Parish Meeting requested that the rural district council’s successor (North Dorset District Council) give it the remaining parts of the land “to regularise ownership of the whole site”.

At Friday’s meeting of the council, councillors agreed to the request, saying it would “reassure” the parish about the future of the village hall and improvement work it has planned for the site.

“In 1952, this council made a mistake,” Cllr Piers Brown, the cabinet member for customer services, said.

“This is a case of correcting an error made by a surveyor to continue to allow Pulham Parish Meeting to have access to its village hall car park.”

The council’s legal services manager, Rob Firth had recommended that the council approve the land transfer saying that the move would be “appropriate” given the parish meeting has controlled the rest of the site “for many years”.

His report said: "The site of the building known as Pulham Village Hall was conveyed by Sturminster Rural District Council to the representative body of the parish of Pulham in September 1952 but the 1952 Conveyance did not include all of the land that has formed part of the Pulham Village Hall site for many years.

"At its meeting on the November 13, Pulham Parish Meeting resolved to apply to North Dorset District Council to grant powers to acquire and own property, to enable Pulham Parish Meeting to regularise its ownership of the whole of the Pulham Village Hall site, and to apply for ownership to be registered at the Land Registry."

"It would seem appropriate to permit the Parish Meeting to have the power to own land, given the 1952 conveyance and that the rest of the site has formed part of Pulham Village Hall for many years."

Speaking in support of the move at Friday's meeting, Cllr Pauline Batstone said: “The ownership of the land should be with the village hall and I think it will reassure the village hall about the future of the improvements they have planned.”

Councillors unanimously agreed for the land to be transferred to Pulham Parish Meeting.