Barrhead St Andrew’s Parish Church has been able to give an increasingly dated room a new lease of life after winning thousands of pounds of funding.

The Ralston Road church received £12,150 from the Brighter Lives Programme of the Benefact Trust, a national UK grant-making charity.

The work was carried out by local contractors over the summer months, and the refurbished room has recently been made available for wider use.

The church now has various plans to make the most of the multi-purpose space which has been equipped with integrated audio-visual facilities.

The room before the refurbishmentThe room before the refurbishment (Image: Supplied) Minister Tim Mineard told the Barrhead News: “We’re very grateful to the Benefact Trust for making this possible.”

One of the original aims of the refurbishment was to create a space suitable for therapeutic usage as well as other purposes by the community.

The room previously hosted a bereavement support group, and there are plans to start this again in 2025.

In addition, the room is regularly used by a wide range of internal and external user groups, including the 1st Barrhead Boys Brigade and the u3a (University of the Third Age) ukulele group.

The room after the refurbishmentThe room after the refurbishment (Image: Supplied) Reverend Mineard trained as a Counsellor prior to being ordained in September 2020, and is looking forward to using the room to provide a comfortable and relaxed space for a wide range of uses. 

“This refurbishment gives us an opportunity to develop new groups, and provides a welcoming space that can be used by the local community in lots of ways,” he added.