A HUGE funding boost has been awarded to an East Cornwall church towards much-needed, major roof repairs.

The parish church of St Dominica and St Dominic has successfully secured a grant of £100,000 from the Government's Listed Places of Worship Roof Repair Fund — the top amount awarded in the grant scheme.

St Dominick's parish church is one of 502 grant recipients, with money coming from a total funding package of £30-million, that have been announced for urgent roof repairs for places of worship across the UK by the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

The fund is administered by the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF) on behalf of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).

Despite such a large cash boost, a further £50,000 is still needed to carry out the major repairs to St Dominick church's roof to ensure the building is weathertight, safe and remains open for use.

Members of the church committee are busy filling in further grant application forms and organising fundraising events in a bid to secure the final bit of funding.

The church's honorary treasurer, Clare Lee, said: 'We are delighted to have received the funding, although the provisional cost of all the work needed is a lot more than that — we're looking at needing to raise another £50,000 at least.

'It is a Grade I Listed medieval church and the two valley gutters are failing and causing an ingress of water into the building.

'We've been doing temporary repairs for a few years, but had to have other work done to the roof about six months ago, which is when we realised that it needed urgent repair work done on it.'

The application was submitted by Clare, along with the church's architect and project manager, who are now looking into other grants that are available.

'We would like to have all the money raised within six months.

'We hope that work can start this summer, although we know we won't hear from some grant providers until mid-summer.

'At £150,000 you know it is going to be a big job, but we hope to be able to have most of the work done before the worst of the winter.'