After a public meeting last month, the community decided to create a committee and permanently close the Waimatua Hall.
Waimatua resident Donald Hay said the meeting was attended by about 20 people.
"It’s the right thing to do. It was a unanimous decision to close the hall down.
"But it’s going to be a long, slow process. There’s a whole legal requirement that we’ve got to go through."
He said while it was the right decision, it was not taken lightly.
But the costs to get the hall up and running again would be more than the community could afford. Problems included a leaking roof and borer in the floor, he said.
"There’s been no functions in it for four years. The local community and younger generation have tried immensely hard over the last . . . 10 years to try to get some functions in it and it was always the same ones turning up and always the same ones funding it."
Another reason the hall was no longer being used as much was there was no school in the Waimatua district any more, he said.
Mr Hay believed the Kennington and Tisbury halls would be able to be used as replacements.
"You’ve got three halls within a 5 kilometre radius.You’ve got Kennington just 6 kilometres down the road and you’ve got Tisbury the same distance down the other way.
"They’ve just all resurrected their halls and they’ve got communities and schools in their districts, which we haven’t, which makes sense for them to continue and it’s better for us to support them than try and fight one another for functions."
Mr Hay said now they would start work to "disband the hall".
But he hoped to do that in a timely manner, as the Fortrose community had to wait about 13 years to close their hall.
"We’re hoping to be closed quicker than that, surely."
