THE congregation of St James' Church in Southbroom, Devizes, is to be asked to give its views on three options for the future of the church.

The options are firstly, a £300,000 refurbishment to enable the church to be used by the whole community; secondly to move out some of the work to a nearby school and thirdly to build a £750,000 extension.

The Parochial Church Council favours the first option of refurbishing the church, parts of which date back to the 15th century. But no decision has been made and it is consulting the congregation on all three options.

The Rev Chris Tebbutt, vicar of St James', said the PCC favoured refurbishing the church but wanted to get the views of the congregation before making a decision in March.

The 150-strong congregation had received presentations on the options and were due to be sent questionnaires.

Refurbishing the church would involve building two soundproof rooms, a new gallery, kitchen and disabled toilet and replacing the pews with chairs.

Mr Tebbutt said: "This would enable us to use the space in the church for community use as well as just a worship centre. It would allow us to have the church open seven days a week with a whole range of activities."

It would also provide better facilities for children. "At the moment trying to do children's work in church is impossible because of the noise," he said.

Under the second option, no internal alterations would be made but the children's work and possibly contemporary worship would move to a local school. This would cost around £4,000 a year in hiring fees and the PCC feels the move out would split the church.

The third option is to build an extension on the churchyard side of the church.