A COUNCIL is attempting to thwart plans by a religious group to close its church and sell it off for housing.

Marlborough Town Council wants the Christchurch Methodist Church to be registered as an Asset of Community Value, which would temporarily restrict any attempts to change its use.

It comes after the Methodist group running it said the 100-year-old building had become "a burden" and was to be sold off. 

The town’s community groups which use the church on New Road for meetings and rehearsals have been told that they will have to find new premises by the end of August, when the church authorities will prepare the building for closure.

The council told this newspaper that it has no plans to run the church, nor has anyone come forward to say it would take it on, but the application has been made so that the community could organise an attempt to save the building, should it want to in the coming months.

If successful in their bid, and the asset is then put up for sale, it gives community groups in the area six months to put together a bid to buy it.

The status has been applied in the past to pubs, shops and other facilities when owners look to change their use.

In the application, the town council says the church is "of intrinsic community value and has been for many years".

They say the venue "has the potential to offer an excellent and vibrant facility for the community again", with the right investment of time and funds.

"It is situated in a good and accessible central location, offers a good range of workable spaces that could lend to different community needs.

"The state of repair is in generally very good condition but in need of some modernising."

A spokesman for the church previously said that it was closing because the congregation "has got older and smaller", and that it can no longer manage the workload of managing the building "as there is only a handful of us who are involved in looking after it".

"It is very sad. We are very sorry that our facilities will not be available to the organisations which use our rooms," they said.

"They have been written to, meetings here will have to cease at the end of August when we will prepare the building for our exit."

The church has been contacted for comment.