EVESHAM's Wildlife Centre was dramatically saved from closure this week - by a church minister and his congregation.

Vale Wildlife had reluctantly decided they could not afford to maintain the Twyford Centre as well as the Wildlife Hospital at Beckford.

Enter Jim Hidderley, a minister with the Kingdom Vision Christian Fellowship in Redditch, who has now formed a partnership with the former manager Anton Psaila.

As he oversaw volunteers from his congregation get to work to smarten up the facilities, he appealed to residents from across the Vale and further afield to support the work they were doing.

"We want to make it more children friendly, more family friendly," he said. "This is not a zoo, but a sanctuary for animals who might be at risk in another environment.

"Many of them are now too tame to be released back out into the world, so we try to provide them with a comfortable environment for the rest of their lives.

"We are putting more money into what will now be known as the Ark Animal Sanctuary but we need the public to get behind us.

"If people don't come and support us, we cannot survive indefinitely."

The sanctuary is home to a wide variety of species from a polecat, Scottish wildcats, an otter and even a 27-year-old pony.

Anton said: "We are keen to put a lot of emphasis on education and we would like to attract schools and colleges to the sanctuary. Hopefully, we will be able to develop a petting area where children can get hands-on experience with the animals."