Bishop of Jarrow and members of the church Kier made a wish come true by providing vital refurbishments to St Cuthbert’s Church in Peterlee.

The refurbishments, including a new kitchen, were unveiled in front of members of the Church and The Right Revd Mark Bryant, Bishop of Jarrow, at an event on 13 February.

The new kitchen will be used by community groups and church goers to cater for church events and will promote social inclusion for local people by encouraging people to get out and about and meet new people.

The Bishop of Jarrow commented: "What's very exciting is that this enables the church to really engage with this community. There’s a real need for places where people can come for community arts things and receptions after Christenings and things like this. That is now all going to be possible. This is just what a church in a community like this ought to be doing."

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During the project, employees from Kier were joined on site by local trainees from East Durham Partnerships (EDP), a local charity which provides work experience opportunities and employability training to young people in the area. As well as providing labour, EDP funded new flooring for the church. The refit took just one week with Kier’s suppliers supporting the development: New Deck provided the flooring, Hewitts donated a hand-basin and Pyeroy carried out an asbestos survey – all free of charge.

The refurbishments included fitting new wall and floor tiling, a new kitchen donated by Kier, as well as painting the kitchen areas of the church to give them a fresh new look.

Kier regional director, Mike Furze, said: "By providing local people with good quality facilities and community buildings we hope to provide opportunities for them to meet, learn new skills and make friends. Social inclusion is extremely important to us at Kier and hopefully these improvements to St Cuthbert’s Church will provide benefits for the local community for many years to come."

(GK/IT)