A VILLAGE hall has won a design award.

Judges said West Burton village hall, in Wensleydale, had a "pleasing distinctiveness, balanced by use of traditional materials".

The Best Buildings Design Awards was run by the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority to mark its 50th anniversary.

Residents and visitors nominated 60 structures that they thought were inspirational for the future and sympath-etic to their surroundings. A panel of judges then chose four winners.

The West Burton hall won best new non-residential building award. Best new house or extension went to Listers Cottage, in Malham.

Kilnsey Old Hall won the best conversion award and the best new farm building was at Raisgill Farm, in Yockenthwaite, Hubberholme.

Andrew McCullagh, the park authority's deputy head of planning, said: "The authority has a planning design guide which sets out what we as a planning authority want to see in new buildings and conversions in the national park.

"The idea of the competition was to find examples of designs which turn those guidelines into a reality and we had a variety of entries, ranging from a sheep dip building to a town hall refurbishment."