A CHURCH being helped by the BBC’s DIY SOS programme has donated old fittings and furniture to charities.

St Silas’s Parish Centre in Blackburn will undergo a transformation to turn the space into accommodation for vulnerable teenagers with children’s charity Nightsafe, which is teamed up with the show for the project.

Some of the outgoing items from the centre were still in good condition, though, so they have not been wasted.

The old kitchen was carefully removed and donated to community charity, Maundy Relief in Accrington.

Executive producer of DIY SOS, Hamish Summers, the build manager Mark Miller and Jill Cowgill of IWA, the architects, drew up the plans for the Big Build and helped with the donation process.

When Mr Miller and Mr Summers decided they couldn’t re-use the kitchen in the new build they said that it would be a pity to scrap it.

Ms Cowgill was working with Maundy Relief and thought they might want it, and it was then disconnected, un-installed and collected.

The kitchen wasn’t the only thing the church donated.

Tables and chairs were also donated to the Canal and River Trust, introduced by Alastair Nicholson, a member of the PCC.

The charity arrived with a flatbed truck to collect several tables and chairs to use at one of their new initiatives.

In due course young people will be sitting on chairs at tables from the parish centre doing creative stuff in workshops run by the Trust.

Even the curtains found a new home at The Alexandra Pub, in Dukes Brow.

The Big Build BBC Children in Need Special is headed to Blackburn from Tuesday, September 3-12.

The current Nightsafe accommodation centre offers access for young people who have nowhere else to go, but the centre is no longer big enough to cater for the growing demand in the area.