Campaigners who banded together to turn their local Methodist Church into a community space have been unsuccessful in their bid. The group, Save Our Community Church, were hoping to offer services and events for local residents at the church on Meadow Lane, Burton Joyce.
The campaigners say that the community are disappointed by the decision especially as it is unclear who has won the bid and the future of the church. The Grade II listed church went up for sale earlier this year at £295,000 with a suggestion to use it as a leisure facility on the advert.
Karen Highfield-Taylor, acting chair of the Save Our Community Church group said: "We got an email from the estate agents to say we weren't successful and that was it. The Methodist church has to accept the highest bid otherwise it breaks charity law to not sell to the highest bidder."
She added: "People have said how disappointed they are and they are quite upset morally about it. We don't have a community centre in the village and it would have made a lovely focus for things that would have supported the community. People aren't used to having that sort of support here so they don't know what's out there. We've been speaking to the call centre in Calverton and our lovely vicar about using other locations in a smaller way than what we were hoping to do at the church. I want some good to come out of this."
The building had been a meeting place before Covid but the numbers started to fall after lockdown. The decision was made to place the church on the market after no one came forward to take it on.
Karen said: "I'm feeling very bereft in that it's a lost chance. There is nothing worse than that as it would have had a wonderful impact on the village. It could have brought together so many different things and benefitted the surrounding area too. There is so much we could have done and we already booked in things like children's sensory therapy. It could have brought in employment too."
The committee is still involved in running different events for the community and is determined to keep going. Karen and Hazel Chadbourne-Doyle who was the acting vice-chair of the church campaign are working together to produce an eco-fair for the village at the community market in September.
"I'm still running the market along with Hazel. We are trying different things like an eco-fair on September 10th alongside the community market. We have the local climate action groups coming down along with the sustainability hub from Lowdham. We want to see how the village reacts to these sort of things," she said.
"It should be an interesting event and if it is successful then we can extend it to twice a year. We want to get people to see what they can do to help the environment and be more aware of their surroundings. If everyone did a little, then a lot would happen."
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