Options for saving church put forward

Plans are being made to save one of a town's oldest churches by turning it into a base for community groups. Two options are being considered for development of St John's United Reformed Church.

One is to change the ground floor of the church, in St John's Road, Stourbridge, into a large open area with small offices alongside.

Community groups would use the larger area to meet and offices would be rented out for work such as counselling or private meetings.

The front of the church would still be for worship.

The other option is to create extra community space by building a partial second floor in the grade-II listed building.

A feasibility study for both schemes has been drawn up – but permission is needed from English Heritage before a final decision.

Detailed costings for the favoured option will then be considered and a business plan drawn up before fundraising can begin.

Church leaders hope to start fundraising by this time next year. Plans to save the church, which dates back to 1860, have been discussed for more than a year.

The building's fate has been left in the balance due to a dwindling congregation.

Minister the Rev Stuart Scott said: "The future of St John's is certainly more hopeful than it was a year ago but we remain in a very vulnerable position at the moment. We need to make use of the building in the best possible way – both socially and economically.

"It is still very early days at the moment and everything rests on whether English Heritage say we can make these changes.6"