A POPULAR priest is giving up his parish to concentrate on helping drug addicts across the North West.

Father Jim McCartney wants THOMAS to become a region-wide leader in its field of rehabilitating drug users and helping them to rebuild their lives.

And that means he will be relinquishing St Anne's RC Church, in Feilden Street, Blackburn.

The church was gutted in an arson attack in December 2000 and was set to re-open next month after a £600,000 re-building project.

But Father McCartney will make way before then for Father Peter Birmingham, currently priest at Sabden.

Father McCartney made the decision so he can concentrate on fulfilling his ambitious plans for expanding THOMAS, which is just around the corner from St Anne's.

The range of services offered by THOMAS, which stands for Those On the Margins of Society, have relentlessly grown since its launch as a soup kitchen 10 years ago.

It is now recognised as a leader in its field by the Government for helping drug addicts and the homeless, something which was highlighted when the charity won two awards at our Pride of East Lancashire ceremony last year.

Bosses at the charity feel its good reputation presents the opportunity to expand its drugs rehabilitation service into other areas.

Father McCartney spent this week in London on a fact-finding mission to see if funding was available for the expansion. He will now produce an eight-year plan, outlining his vision for expansion.

The idea is at a preliminary stage, but plans are well under way for opening a new centre in Burnley.

However, Father McCartney today confirmed more centres were set to follow across the region's cities and towns.

He said: "I am hoping to put an eight-year strategy together by the end of this year, looking at how the organisation can develop throughout the North West."

Fr McCartney said he believed THOMAS was equipped with the expertise to move into another area.

He would like to see accommodation-based projects for people upon their release from prison, rather than them being released back into the community.

This service has been offered successfully for almost two years in Blackburn in a link-up with HMP Lancaster, and consistently out performs the government's own programmes.