VILLAGERS will be involved in deciding the future of a controversial new notice board through a confidential ballot.Debenham parish council began a six month review and village-wide consultation in May on the future of the new green pillar-shaped notice board after it attracted strong criticism from some villagers after it was put up by the village green.

VILLAGERS will be involved in deciding the future of a controversial new notice board through a confidential ballot.

Debenham parish council began a six month review and village-wide consultation in May on the future of the new green pillar-shaped notice board after it attracted strong criticism from some villagers after it was put up by the village green.

Some critics scathingly dubbed it the "Debenham pissoir" – the French word for a urinal – and launched a website on the issue.

A working group was set up, and this weekend councillors and other volunteers will begin two weeks of house-to-house calls, inviting everyone who is 16 or over to fill in a simple questionnaire to make their views known.

Their answers will be confidential and not attributable to any individual or household.

The same volunteers will collect the forms in sealed ballot boxes.

They will be opened and the answers recorded at a public meeting at Dove Cottage on the evening of Tuesday, September 2.

The results will then be analysed and the future of the notice board announced.

If any household cannot be contacted by the volunteers, the form will be left together with instructions for return or collection.

The notice board was put up in response the results of a village appraisal in 2001, but some residents feel strongly that it does not suit the village.

"All we want is for the whole village to have its say as to whether we should keep our new notice board or purchase a different on," said parish councillor Mick Morley, chairman of the review working group.

"I hope that the review will draw a line under this issue once and for all."