A VICAR has sent crisis letters to councillors in a bid to kick-start the £1.5million rejuvenation of a run-down church hall.

A scheme to revamp Clitheroe Parish Church Hall, Church Street, has failed to get off the ground since being launched in May.

Now Canon Philip Dearden has written to members of Ribble Valley Council warning time is running out for the 19th Century building and its help is needed.

The hall has major structural defects and is in urgent need of repair. But attempts to obtain private and council funding have so far failed.

Canon Dearden said: "It is a considerable asset, providing a stage and meeting space not available elsewhere in Ribble Valley.

"Unfortunately it is in need of urgent repair and radical refurbishment to provide a standard of accommodation required by community-users and the Disability Discrimination Act, which comes into force next year.

"The hall continues to deteriorate and the trustees will soon be faced with a very tough decision - to sell up.

"If the community does not grasp the opportunity to own this site and develop it for the benefit of the people of the Ribble Valley, it will close and be sold for redevelopment."

A Parish Hall Development Group was set up earlier this year to look at forming a community business, comprising interested parties, church authorities and hall-users, to run the site.

Chairman Liz Parkinson said: "Among the projects envisaged for the parish hall are a caf and media supported meeting place. The position is complicated by the fact other projects are being undertaken in the town, including the redevelopment of the Grand Cinema, and the most promising option seems to be the sale of the property to a community-based development company, with the Parochial Church Council reinvesting all or part of the proceeds back into the development.

"Whatever the outcome of present discussions, the parish church hall will cease to exist as we know it. Either it will disappear altogether or will rise again in a totally new form."

Ribble Valley Council leader Chris Holtom said: "I'd like to see the hall more widely used by all the people of the Ribble Valley and Clitheroe."

Interested parties are asked to contact Philip Dearden on 01200 423317 or Liz Parkinson on 01200 422660 (parkinson. liz@virgin.net) without delay.