Church welcomes desperately needed new member of its flock - Henry the hoover

Volunteers at Springdale Methodist Church, Penn, have been struggling with a second hand vacuum for years but when Penn Councillor Paul Singh saw the state of them he offered to clear up the problem.

Councillor Singh funded a new Henry XL from Penn ward funds and dropped him off to the church for a lifetime of service.

Nicola Jones, a Trustee at Springdale Methodist Church and Community Centre, was delighted finally to have a hoover up to the job.

She said: "Volunteers at Springdale clean the church on a rota basis and have been using 2nd hand vacuum cleaners for years which were passed on from others when they no longer needed them.

"Although these were gratefully received at the time, on a recent clean they were found to be inadequate."

With the Lord moving in mysterious ways Nicola explained it was sheer luck Councillor Singh visited the Warstones Road church just as their old vacuums conked out.

She said:"Councillor Singh, who is a great supporter of the work we do here for the whole of the community, happened to be calling at the time when they wouldn't work.

"He offered to use some of his allocation of Penn Ward funds so we could purchase a brand new cleaner. As some of our members had a Henry which they recommended we gratefully received the offer and now have one which is also suitable for our wooden floors, it's brilliant."

Councillor Singh was happy to use ward funds to directly solve a community problem. Every ward in Wolverhampton has an annual fund of £10,000 which allocated to good causes by councillors.

He said: "All the volunteers and members of Springdale Church and Community Centre do so much great work without asking for reward. So when I saw how they were trying to cope with substandard equipment I thought ward funds could get them a new member of their flock - Henry the hoover."