It is with dismay and sadness that I have learnt that the public hall in the Vestry Hall, Mitcham, is to be closed to the public later this year after 120 years.

Without any form of consultation with local people, the hall is to be converted into offices.

The public hall, the Old Council Chamber and committee room have been central to local people's lives for a varity of activities ever since the building opened in 1887.

Over 100 years later, in 1989, this beautiful Grade II listed building, was proudly announced as the Tory flagship by councillors Jan and Allan Jones during their mayoral year, when they re-opened it following a refurbishment as a community building.

Since then, the building has provided much needed office space for the voluntary sector in Merton, while continuing to provide valuable space for hundreds of local people each week for a variety of positive recreational activities that are sensitive to the building users' needs.

However, the public hall is situated on the first floor of Vestry Hall and for it to remain open after 2004/5 it had to meet an EU directive, ie access to public places long recognised by the council as the borough's busiest, most popular and well used.

The council awarded a £120,000 capital maintenance grant to install a lift to the middle floor.

It also awarded several other grants at the same time to up-grade the middle floor and to extend the lift to the second floor.

A disabled toilet was installed on the middle floor, the remaining toilets and kitchen on that floor were upgraded.

The public hall itself was redecorated and refurbished. The total expenditure was close to £200,000.

The purpose of the majority of this money was to secure the future of the public hall and other public areas in the building.

So, what has changed in the 15 months for this administration to make this dramatic turnaround about the Vestry Hall's function as a community building serving local people?

Mitcham, as with other areas of the borough, has ample vacant office accommodation, some in easy walking distance to the Vestry Hall.

I urge you the administration to reconsider its decision to close Vestry Hall's public hall, and allow local people to continue to enjoy their given heritage.

Failing this, I would ask it to account for the appalling waste of public money by adapting the middle floor of the Vestry Hall to enable public access, to close it one year later.

MAUREEN WILLETT Retired centre manager Vestry Hall 1988-2006