I have been contacted by a number of constituents in recent days who are concerned about the future of St Luke’s Church.

St Luke’s is a church of significant architectural and historical interest.  It is an important Wolverhampton landmark and part of the city’s architectural and religious heritage.   The neighbouring St Luke’s School, since replaced, was also of course the birthplace of Wolverhampton Wanderers.

I am very pleased that there is so much local interest in maintaining the church into the future.

The church has not been safe to use for a number of years and in October last year it was officially declared as no longer being appropriate to use as a place of worship.

Following that decision it was passed to the Diocese of Lichfield and the Church Commissioners who are charged with finding an alternative use for the church.

It is important to stress that although the church is in disrepair and in need of significant investment to bring it back into use for any purpose, there has been no decision to demolish it nor is such a decision imminent.

I have been involved with past efforts to raise funds to repair the church, writing to the National Lotter Heritage Fund appealing for their support.  Ultimately those efforts were unsuccessful because the funding package required support from a number of sources, not just the Heritage Lottery Fund.

I welcome local involvement in trying to secure the future of the church.  Ultimately its future will only be secured if funding can be secured.  There is no accurate up to date estimate of what the repair bill is but it will be a substantial amount of money.

I have spoken to local historian Aaron Gill who has started a petition on the 38 Degrees website calling for the preservation of the church.  You can sign the petition here: https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/save-st-lukes-blakenhall-wolverhampton.