VITAL repair work at St Stephen's Church in Redditch is set to start this week.

The church will be surrounded by scaffolding in the next few days as repair work on the roof, tower stonework, gutters and downpipes, commences.

The work will take 23 weeks to complete. There will be no parking on site but people will still be able to access church for services.

Reverend Paul Lawlor said: “We have been able to secure a grant from Allchurches Trust but this is a substantial project, with similarly substantial costs.

“We are working on accessing additional grants, but at present, the majority of the costs have to be met from money we had earmarked on making the building more flexible for worship and community use.

"Once the building is properly watertight, we hope to work on raising the money necessary to allow St Stephen’s to best serve the community it is set amidst.”