Turning a disused Methodist chapel into a community hall has come a step closer in a Ripon village.

A steering group for the ambitious project has been formed at Grewelthorpe after the chapel closed in March due to dwindling congregations.

Support for the scheme has delighted the Methodist minister for the area, the Reverend Elizabeth Clark, who said that more than 40 people had attended a public meeting last week.

Earlier, residents had been asked to give their views.

While Mrs Clark welcomed the results in favour of the project, she said it was easy to get people ticking various boxes in the survey.

Now the steering group had been formed to "do something about it", she said.

Mrs Clark said no final figure for the project had been reached, although some had been banded about. Architects have been asked to draw up plans for the conversion work.