Dance company wants to turn empty Stourbridge church into community centre
A Stourbridge church that closed earlier this year could be brought back to life by campaigners who want to buy the historic building.
St John's United Reformed Church went on the market a few weeks ago after it shut following its final service in January.
Now dance company Danse Vivante says it wants to use their ‘funds and love’ to keep the church as a community space.
Hundreds of signatures have also been gained on a petition to save the building, after being launched just days ago.
Pippa Coley, who has trained with the dance academy for four years, said that they have high hopes for the future of the building.
She explained: "The church is really local to us as we are based in Halesowen. We had everything in place ready to buy another church in Redditch recently but sadly that fell through. So when we saw that St John's had come up for sale we knew that we wanted to get involved straight away.
"There has been quite a lot of interest in it from what I hear, but the main thing is we don't want it to be turned into accommodation or knocked down as that would be a crying shame."
The group say that they hope to keep the building in tact, with it being Grade II listed, but there would be minor alterations inside.
Ms Coley added: "The roof needs fixing but we have plans to make the inside usable for lots of different places.
"Groups such as Slimming World are also up for getting involved - we want it to be a real hub.
"It is incredibly exciting and the perfect building for us to expand and bring to life for all the community.
"Our petition was only launched a few days ago and already has more than 300 signatures.
"We have the funds but now we need the support and awareness and the backing of the community."
Councillor Stuart Henley, is also in support of Danse Vivante's plans.
He added: "The church in Stourbridge would be great for this group to hold all the variety of skills they perform.
"It will be a great shame to lose them from Halesowen but I fully support this group in growing and turning the church in to a community asset.
"It would be great to see many sign the petition in support of their project and bring the community together."
