Bosses at an East Hampshire village hall won’t get a grant for solar panels because of border issues.

But the applicants from Oakhanger left the Whitehill Town Council meeting feeling empowered after being offered multiple aways of getting funding.

The Oakhanger Village Hall Committee applied for a £3,000 Minor Grant from WTC to help with the costs of a solar panel scheme,

The venue is popular with Whitehill & Bordon residents and has seen an influx in users because of ongoing development.

But it’s a victim of geography as the hall lies narrowly inside the Selborne parish boundary, so routinely misses out on developer cash despite its close proximity.

“Oakhanger has a Bordon postcode because it’s always traditionally been part of Bordon,” said OVHC chair, Carol McMeekan.

“What we’re finding is that through the expansion (of W&B) that we’re getting more and more people not just coming through Oakhanger but also those coming here to use the village hall.

“That is potentially putting costs and expenses up. We are just outside the parish boundary so we’re really restricted in terms of what we can do for funding.”

“We have Bordon houses right up to the boundary and it would be nice to get even a little bit of the money that’s coming from development,” said hall committee member, Katie West, to the WTC Executive Committee.

“The road to Oakhanger and our facilities are being used by all the people moving here but we don’t get any of the S106 money coming from it, so we do feel we’re missing out.”

Committee chairman and WTC leader, Cllr Andy Tree, claimed he and the council could not back the application given Oakhanger village hall is outside the parish boundary.

He felt approval could set a precedent and lead to grant applications from the hall’s counterparts in Blackmoor and Lindford, especially as a request for a similar scheme inside the W&B boundary was rejected.

He said: “I’m troubled by the suggestion we would grant money outside the parish when we can’t do it inside our own.

“I’m troubled about W&B taxpayers would think about us funding projects outside our boundary.”

While the decision was a blow, plenty of funding has already been secured with Selborne Parish Council giving £5,000 and the hall raising the same amount, while county councilors Phillip Davies and David Ashcroft have donated £1,000 each.

And there was more good news for the Oakhanger visitors at the Forest Community Centre meeting on Thursday (April 17) with councillors Tree, Adeel Shah and others directing the pair down numerous fundraising avenues.

They heard that East Hampshire District Council will soon be accepting requests for a share of its Green Fund, which could easily provide major funding, while each councillor is given their own funding pot to divvy to community uses.

Deputy town clerk, Ray Ramsay, also encouraged them to apply for a SSEN grant as the firm has a “big pot of money” for schemes like theirs.