A PENDLE village is applying for £30,000 of lottery funding from the BBC programme Village SOS to turn a chapel into a community hub.

Laneshawbridge is hoping to raise around £60,000 in total to transform the methodist chapel in the village into a shop and a place where people can meet.

The village has lost all of its facilities, including the post office and the hairdressers, and residents have to travel almost two miles to get to the nearest shops.

Anne Constable, chairman of the Laneshawbridge events committee, said: “The building is ideal to be used as a village hub.

“We have absolutely nothing here and there is just so much we want to do.

“We on the parish council and on the events committee want to bring everybody together and we are also wanting to have a tea room and use the space for night classes.”

The committee sent a questionnaire to more than 700 houses in the village asking what they would like to see.

As well as converting the chapel, the committee is also hoping to build some allotments and to transform the area behind the chapel, which is on the main road through the village, into a carpark.

Mrs Constable said she was delighted with the response from people who live in the village and from businesses who have agreed to help out with the makeover.

“There is a lot to do, but with enough enthusiasm and optimism, we can do it,” she said.

Coun Paul White, who represents the Boulsworth ward, said that the village should hear if it has been successful within a month.

“It will be a huge thing for this community,” he said.

“ We don’t want it to be just a village hall, we want it to be a hub that offers a variety of services to the whole community.”