£500,000 Lottery facelift for Litherland Church

Apr 9 2009 by Janine Yaqoob, Crosby Herald

A LITHERLAND church has been awarded £500,000 to revamp its community areas.

Linacre Mission, which has been established since 1904, can now press ahead with plans to transform its community centre.

Funding has been needed to improve the vast amount of community space the Linacre building has to offer so that it can be used more widely by people in the area for conferences, exhibitions and community groups and bring the centre into the 21st Century.

The Beacon Project will include two social enterprise spaces which will house not for profit businesses creating jobs in the local community, a kitchen that will be able to cater for more than 80 people, new modern facilities such as central heating and toilets, access for disabled people, a revamped games hall and refurbished meeting rooms.

Rev Ann Hall said: “Everyone at the Mission was absolutely elated when we found out we were to be given the grant! There has since been a real buzz around the place.

“Work is set to start in January 2010 and the work will take between six to nine months.

“I must thank Linda Wills, Mary Cotton, Phil Hurst and Karen McCormish for all their hard work and support in gaining this grant. I am very grateful to them all.”