A £900,000 Witney community hall hit by a dispute with contractors will finally open after town councillors said they sacked the builders and changed the locks.

Madley Park Hall, in Northfields Farm Lane, will open on June 6, six months after its original opening date.

In March, Witney Town Council said the hall had not opened because it wanted Cheltenham firm Beam Construction to replace the floor.

Council leaders said they fired Beam on March 11 and changed the locks on March 22. A new firm was brought in to complete the work.

An independent adjudicator will now decide which side is at fault and whether Beam is owed money.

But next month, the hall will be handed over to a charitable trust, made up of Madley Park residents, which will look after its running.

Roger Curry, chairman of the council’s public halls committee and a member of the trust, said: “It kept going on and on and on. At some point you had to say enough is enough.

“The locks were changed when the contractor was fired because we had no idea who had keys to the hall and the council wanted to secure it.”

Beam Construction was not available for comment, but is taking the case to independent adjudication.

In March it said the building was “practically complete”.

Witney firm Cooper Construction was brought in to finish the job.

But the floor will not be replaced until the summer. An independent inspector employed by the council said the floor had a “manufacturing fault” and was “fitted unacceptably”.

Mr Curry added: “It’s been extremely frustrating and totally unnecessary.”

Funding was given by developers behind the Madley Park housing development.