WHEN it comes to grand ideas, there have been few grander in recent years than the plan hatched in Carleton to buy the vicarage in the village and convert it into a new hall for the residents.

The building itself is valued at half a million pounds and there would be extra costs to convert it.

But no-one should scoff at the idea or dismiss it out of hand. We applaud those behind the scheme for having the courage and ambition to even think about the project. One suspects our Victorian forebears would have thrown themselves into such a scheme with gusto.

If it comes off, then Carleton will have a village facility to be proud of.

But if is a big word and the first step has to be the major hurdle of getting the village itself to back the project. The portents do not look good.

In the far north of our territory, in Burton-in-Lonsdale, plans for a new community building, albeit somewhat less grand than Carleton's, have floundered after failing to achieve the required three-quarters of the village in favour of the proposal.

A sign of a thriving community is its school, pub, post office and village hall and in far too many villages some or all four are under threat - perhaps even closed.

It's not impossible to halt the decline. Cracoe, for example, opened a quite splendid new village hall in recent years.

The next step for Carleton is a public meeting. We wish the visionaries well with their plans and we hope the people of Carleton will have an open mind about the scheme.