'Homeless' group plea

10:54pm Friday 4th April 2008

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AN urgent appeal for help has been made after it was announced that a well-used community centre is to be sold.

The church hall at Huncoat Methodist Church in Marshall Avenue will close shortly because of a lack of volunteers and the poor repair of the building.

The local youth group as well as Huncoat's neighbourhood policing team use the church building to hold their meetings, but once the building is sold, they will be homeless'.

PCSO Paul Crossland, who conducts PACT meetings at the church, said he does not know where they will go. He said: "We've approached Huncoat Primary School to see if we could use their assembly hall to hold our meetings but the decision has to go through their board of governors before a decision can be made, so we don't know if we will have a new venue in time.

"It's not just us and the youth group - there are lots of other community groups who use the church as their meeting point and now they're all going to have to find somewhere else.

"The community association even enquired into buying the church themselves and turn it into a community project but it's in such a bad state it wasn't worth it. We'd like to appeal to any local businesses who may have a room spare to offer to contact us."

The Huncoat Methodist Church closed its doors as a church more than a year ago after attendance levels fell.

It was then taken over by the Accrington and Haslingden Methodist Circuit so the premises could be used for community work.

However due to disrepair and lack of volunteers the decision was made to sell the building.

If you have a place you could offer for the community to use, contact Accrington Police on 01254 353103.