Sacred Trinity Church on Chapel Street is struggling to cope with paying its own energy bills as it pledges to keep providing a warm refuge for the community.
Rector Andy Salmon said: “Our worst case scenario is we’ll be paying £8,000 for electricity. That’s a four-fold increase and that’s allowing for some cutting back on costs and some subsidy from the government.”
The church is already making some adjustments.
Mr Salmon added: “We’ve been a bit more frugal about heating, we’ve looked at things like where the draughts might be coming from.
“Without any external help, we would seriously have to cut stuff.”
Sacred Trinity Church is grateful for the help it has received so far. Mr Salmon said: “We’ve got a very generous grant from a local charity who are helping us to heat the building so that we can have a warm building for people to come in to.
“We think it’s really important that places like us are open so that people who can’t afford to heat their homes can come here and have a warm cup of coffee, and sit in the warm.”
Despite feeling the effects of the cost of living crisis themselves, Sacred Trinity Church is doing all it can to help out the local community who are also suffering.
Rector Salmon added: “Of course a lot of people in the community are facing the same problems.
“We notice it when we go out to buy a carton of milk, it’s basically doubled over the last couple of years. We’re open as a place of welcome, and we’re offering people tea and toast and a place to be that’s reasonably comfortable and warm.”
The church is currently open as a place for the public to have somewhere warm to go to and a bite to eat on a Tuesday lunchtime. It is hoping to open on Wednesday afternoons too, despite rising costs.
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