A Worth Valley community centre that urgently needs refurbishment now has the £50,000 it requires to have most of the work completed.

Oxenhope Community Centre, which had been at risk of closure because of its poor condition, has been awarded £50,000 from landfill tax distributor WREN.

Tony Maw, chairman of Oxenhope Community Association, said: “This is great news for Oxenhope because we can now progress on refurbishing the building.

“It urgently needs a new roof to replace the leaking one and windows to replace those which are rotten, as well as other remedial work.

“The community centre has been in danger of closing because of the state of the building. Work on the roof will probably have to take place in the spring when the weather improves so now we have to survive the winter.”

Peter Cox, managing director of WREN, said: “We make a difference to people’s lives by awarding grants to community, environmental and heritage projects across the UK. We’re delighted to support Oxenhope Community Association and their valuable work.”

The 25-year-old community centre is heavily in demand throughout the week and accommodates sessions ranging from keep fit and pre-school to dance and zumba. It is also used for fundraising coffee mornings and a monthly antiques collectors’ meeting.

Mr Maw said: “We’ve already done some remedial work on the roof to stop the worst of the leaks but that didn’t entirely stop the water coming in.

“A couple of weeks ago part of the ceiling was in danger of falling through so we took some plaster down and did a temporary fix.

“In the long run we will probably have to take the ceiling down and have it redone.”

He added he and his colleagues would try and time the work to coincide with school holidays to minimise disruption for those groups that use the building.