WESTHOUGHTON Rectory may be offered for sale - because it is becoming too expensive to maintain.

St Bartholomews Parish team council have decided to have the grounds surveyed and look at various options with a possibility of redeveloping the site to provide a more modest and economical parsonage house.

The rectory, situated in large gardens, is the home of the Rev Simon Tatton-Brown rector of St Bartholomews. When Rev Tatton-Brown was appointed to the parish seven years ago the diocese proposed to replace the rectory with a smaller house and garden.

However, the plans did not materialise because the rectory's large rooms were needed for meetings and groups and it would have left the parish with nowhere to hold garden parties and other similar events.

Now church officials believe the arguments no longer apply as the new St Bartholomews Church, which opened in October last year, has a number of meeting rooms and the parochial school grounds are being extended. They say the rectory is in the highest band for council tax and now the question being asked is whether the expense of keeping it can be justified.

The future of the parish hall at Tithe Barn Street is also under scrutiny due to the fact that since the opening of the new church it has hardly been used. The hall costs about £1,000 a year to run. It may now be included in the diocese survey.

The team council is now asking parishioners for their views before a decision is taken.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.