AMBITIOUS plans to renovate Holy Trinity Church, Cowling, could include deconsecrating the seating area, removing the pews and opening it up to community groups.

The altar and pulpit area would be screened off so the main hall could be divided up into small meeting places, for educational use or for fundraising groups - a church and church hall under one roof!

Stacking chairs would be used for seating for large church services.

These ideas form just part of a package of restoration and renovation plans for the grade two listed church over the coming years.

The cost of the repairs is expected to run into hundreds of thousands of pounds and the church committee is hoping a Lottery grant will bear the brunt of the burden. A bid is being put together.

However, the committee has set itself a target of raising at least £20,000 to help with the costs.

The church tower needs urgent repairs. The walls are damp and the wooden flooring is rotten.

A five-year report stated that work needed to be done during the next year as the structure was becoming dangerous.

Churchwarden Len Henley has to climb the tower's narrow steps twice a week to wind up the church clock - he and the wardens before him have been doing this since 1926. In total the three heavy handles need 300 rotations a week to keep the clock ticking.

The pensioner said that this work was getting a bit much and he hoped some of the money could be spent on making the clock electric.

Other work includes installing heating and toilets, as well as accompanying water supply and drainage, and a new kitchen.

Church committee treasurer Margaret Henley said that once the damp had been sorted out the church needed decorating again.

She said that since the launch of the fundraising appeal in November, £7,000 had been raised through donations in lieu of presents for birthdays and wedding anniversaries, coffee mornings, a Silsden Male Voice Choir concert, strawberry teas and street collections.

Already planned for the future are a concert by Silsden Band, a grand raffle and various stalls.

Mrs Henley said that at a recent church meeting a resolution had been passed to have the 148-year-old church re-ordered.

The front area will remain consecrated and sectioned off and the main hall deconsecrated so that the pews can be taken out. She said this idea had not come up against any opposition and she had seen multi-use churches run successfully elsewhere.

The hall, in which stacking chairs can be set out for large services like Christmas and Christingle, can then also be used for fundraisers, meetings, playgroups and so on.

"It is not doing much with it other than using it more," said Mrs Henley. This proposal now has to be approved by the diocese.

A coffee evening to raise funds for the church will be held in the old vicarage on July 17 from 6.30pm.