Described as a "brick masterpiece" with a tower which "rises majestically" above nearby houses, the abandoned All Souls church in Bolton was in a sorry state back in 2007 due to neglect and anti-social behaviour.
But 15 years on with the help of a team led by local campaigner Inayat Omarji, the 19th century building is now beautifully renovated and a thriving community hub. With no help available from the austerity-ravaged Bolton Council, Mr Omarji put more than 5,000 hours of his own time into the project before eventually getting transformative funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
He is now one of six local leaders fronting the We're Right Here campaign calling for a new Community Power Act. They say this legislation, which includes giving communities the right of first refusal once buildings and spaces with significant community value come up for sale, would "fundamentally change where power lies in this country".
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Mr Omarji told The Northern Agenda podcast: "The country obviously is facing huge problems, such as inequality, local decline, and widespread mistrust. People in local communities are on a day-to-day basis answering these problems. They're delivering, local people have the answers.
"So we're out here, doing the hard work. But it shouldn't be so hard, we shouldn't be going against the grain, we shouldn't be pushing doors at every little hurdle."
Hear Inayat Omrarji's full story in The Northern Agenda podcast
Mr Omarji, who is now a trustee at the Bolton Community Leisure Trust, describes how he had been volunteering in Bolton since the 1990s and had a "burning desire" for a local venue that could be used by local communities. He was working for the council in 2007 when he approached the Churches Conservation Trust, the owners of All Souls in the north of Bolton. The building at the heart of a largely south Asian community saw frequent graffiti and fires.
"I said 'Listen, we need to clean this building up. Because if you don't, it's going to get burnt down and it's going to go to ruin and it's a beautiful building'.
"And that was the point when they opened the church doors and said 'this is what it looks like'. And I went in and was like, 'Wow, what a beautiful building. Why are we not doing anything with it?'
"There was this dilemma around the local authority at that time, who were closing leisure centres down, they were opening children's centres and then closing them down because there was a lack of funding, closing libraries in the communities down.
"And I've still got this in my head in the community, 'we need a hub, a place for communities to meet'. I'm still working with the local authority. And I'm trying to push the agenda to say we need a hub for young people, the elderly, and everybody can come together.
"And I was more or less in a nice way from my bosses at that time and the local authority saying 'Inayat great idea, but we haven't got the money, we can't do anything, you need to take this on in on your own'."
After persistent lobbying and working with the Churches Conservation Trust, Mr Omarji secured funding from a variety of sources, including £4.3m from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The major transformation project saw the installation of a pod design, described as 'a building within a building' - which leaves the historic fabric largely untouched.
The pods house training, learning and performance spaces and the church also hosts a multi-media exhibition that tells the stories of Boltonians today and throughout the town's history. Mr Omarji now talks proudly of how the church is now thriving as a business, delivering conferences, events, martial arts sessions and women and children's activities.
The We're Right Here campaign is writing to Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove asking for a meeting to discuss their proposals to communities greater powers to take ownership of spaces, shape public services and control public spending in their area. These include community covenants, neighbourhood-level arrangements which would bring local people, community organisations and local authorities together to share power and make decisions.
They also want to establish a Community Power Commissioner, an independent office charged with ensuring action is taken across government to uphold the new community rights. According to the Young Foundation Research Institute, which specialises in community research and social innovation, the majority of major government-funded economic interventions over the last two decades have not involved communities in a meaningful or sustainable way.
And 71% of UK adults feel that they lack control over the important decisions in their neighbourhoods.
Mr Omarji, who is joined by local leaders in places like Hartlepool and Sheffield, said: "We can do more in our local neighbourhoods, if you engage with us, and that's the message that we're trying to get out."
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