THE end is in sight for a major development project at a Wolvercote church.

Over the past few years parishioners at St Peter’s church have managed to raise nearly £700,000 to redevelop the building. Now the project is entering its final stages as the church in First Turn decorates its interior.

Rev Mark Butchers, the vicar of Wolvercote, said: “We are getting there. We have done the work outside the church and now we have moved inside.

“We did some work in June decorating, refurbishing the pews and improving the heating.

“There is another phase coming in November which will involve putting stackable pews in the north aisle.”

He added that another £40,000 needed to be raised for the project to be finished. The final phase of the work would involve spending up to £20,000 on replacing the lighting, which would be done once the money had been raised.

Six years ago the church carried out an audit of its parish which revealed that parishioners felt they did not have enough community space. So St Peter’s decided to build a new community room and link it to the church itself.

A fundraising campaign was launched in March 2009 and building started just over a year later.

Alterations to the existing church room were completed in 2010, the new parish room was finished in 2011 and the glass link was opened last year. Once the interior is finished the church hopes it will be used during the week as a flexible space in the north aisle.

Mr Butchers said: “It has been a big piece of work and I will be pleased when it is out of the way, but it is a wonderful achievement in a relatively short space of time.

“The rooms are being very well used by a whole variety of groups. It has been very encouraging. On Tuesdays we have got a community cafe and the playgroup has been able to expand to five mornings, so lots of things have taken off, which is exactly what we hoped.”

The project has so far been funded by donations and grants from bodies such as Oxfordshire County Council, The Tolkien Trust and the Brunner Trust.