Witney Town Council plans to create a group to tackle ongoing problems with community halls in the town.

After the recent closure of the Corn Exchange and issues with Madley Park Hall the council will create a specialist public halls committee.

The group will have six members, doubling the current members in the public halls sub-committee, which comes under the remit of the leisure and recreation committee.

A motion to create the new group and appoint a chairman and vice chairman will be heard at a full council meeting today.

But Labour councillor Duncan Enright, the only non-Conservative on the council, said he will oppose the plan, saying discussions should be at full council.

The council closed the Corn Exchange last month over concerns the heating and ventilation system was close to “imminent failure”.

And it was also forced to shell out £143,000 after fighting and then losing a legal battle against the contractors of Madley Park Hall, in Northfield Farm Lane, which opened seven months late.

Mr Enright fears the committee will not attract as many residents as the full council meetings to ensure full scrutiny.

He said: “Discussing these issues should be done at full town council meetings, in full view of the public.

“The council needs to be much more open in the way it does its business in order to make better decisions and to avoid problems like we have had with the Corn Exchange, where people knew nothing about what was going on and suspected the worst.”

But Witney mayor Harry Eaglestone said: “We want a proper, constituted committee to look at and sort out these problems, with the Corn Exchange top of the list. The leisure and recreation committee have got enough things to deal with as it is, so the council wants a special committee to concentrate on public halls and meet every month, rather than the current every two or three months.

“It will definitely help the situation without question.”

The full town council meeting will be held at the Town Hall from 7pm tonight.