Garland Street Baptist Church in Bury St Edmunds addresses sale of Elven Centre as it goes on market for £500,000

A Bury St Edmunds church has placed its community centre on the market for £500,000.

The Elven Centre, which belongs to the Garland Street Baptist Church, is being listed on PrimeLocation.

The church told SuffolkNews that for various reasons, since the main church was refurbished in 2000, they have not been able to make the centre a building that fully meets the needs of it and its community, either through planning restrictions or cost.

Adrian Mundell, church secretary, said just because the Elven Centre had been put on the market, there were no plans to move the church, while the activities which were run in the centre would be moved to the main building.

He said: “As a church, we got to the stage where God was saying to us maybe this isn’t where we should be, where he has other plans for us which don’t include the Elven Centre.

“While a town centre location has advantages, it also has restrictions and, for us, lack of parking has impacted what we want to do and the ability to run events and activities that people have to travel to.

“We thought we’d put it on the market and see what happens, and if that goes through we can see what happens going forward.”

Mr Mundell added the church has seen a fair amount of growth in recent years which was very exciting, and it would explore the possibility of looking at other venues for activities which were formerly undertaken in the Elven Centre.

This included a youth group, carpet bowls and table tennis.