A VILLAGE hall is on the verge of becoming an independent charity after two years of work.

Volunteers who look after South Hinksey Village Hall have bid to make themselves a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) and are now almost there.

This new kind of legal status, created in 2013, will mean trustees are not legally liable for the financial assets or losses of their charity, and the Village Hall Management Committee trustees are hoping it will encourage more people to join them.

In their latest statement the group of four said: "Almost exactly two years after we began the process, it looks as if the end may just be in sight.

"We have been held up by one snag after another, mainly legal niceties to do with the ownership of the hall and its transfer from South Hinksey Parish Council as trustees to the Village Hall Management Committee.

"We have a brand new constitution, which has been accepted by the Charities Commission.

"The 'new charity' already exists and we will be ready to go as soon as the final documents are signed.

"It's been a long process, but we hope that it will secure the village hall for many years to come."

The hall, in Manor Road, South Hinksey, was built in 1914 as a Baptist chapel, and in the 1940s, residents raised the money to buy it and make it their own.

It now hosts the September village fete, Halloween and Christmas parties and South Hinksey Parish Council meetings.

In 2014 the trustees raised £10,000 to give the hall its first refurbishment in a decade.