Bishop's Waltham's historic Institute building will be sold to the highest bidder - despite a desperate battle to keep it in public use.

The Charity Commission has ruled that the 103-year-old Educational Institute can be sold.

The decision - made after a month-long consultation - signals the final nail in the coffin for the Save our Institute campaign.

The much-loved Victorian brick building was bequeathed for use by the community but has fallen into disrepair.

Now the building's trustees will put it on the market where it is expected to raise around £300,000 before being turned into luxury flats or offices.

Elsie Starks, chairman of the Save our Institute steering committee, said: "I am very disappointed in the decision, but we haven't given up hope until the building is sold." Eric Birbeck, chairman of Bishop's Waltham Parish Council, which acts as trustee, said the decision to sell was taken with regret but was financially unavoidable.

He said: "We now have sealed approval of the scheme laid by the trustees in front of the Charity Commission. We as trustees now have permission to dispose of the Institute."

Mr Birbeck said that the Bank Street building was not English Heritage listed, but that under the agreed scheme developers would not be allowed to alter its faade.

He said: "I have met with the planners from Winchester City Council who have stated that the faade will remain."

Under the sell-off agreement the trustees must re-invest the cash from the sale in developing a similar community building.

The trustees have yet to decide what that scheme might be, but Mr Birbeck told the Daily Echo it could mean a new youth facility to replace the damaged Malt Lane facility.

He said: "We need a facility that will provide a service for the younger elements of Bishop's Waltham - playschools, playschemes, a youth club.

"I am looking to see if we can centralise the service. By day a community centre for younger residents and in the evening a centre for teenagers."

Mrs Starks said the Save our Institute steering committee had yet to meet to decide how to take the campaign forward.

There were plans for campaigners to form a new trustee committee which would take over control of the building and raise cash to refurbish it.

But Mrs Starks said: "It is a tremendous responsibility. At the moment I do not think anybody is committed because they haven't been asked to be committed."