WORK on restoring St Stephen's Church spire will start before the end of the month following a seven-year appeal, it has finally been announced.

The news comes after successful talks between the town centre church and English Heritage, which agreed to increase its funding allocation to 70 per cent of the total cost.

The appeal target was originally £220,000 but was increased to £300,000 after costs predictions escalated.

Delighted Canon David Salt said: "We had a meeting on Tuesday morning and were informed the trustees of the National Heritage Memorial Fund had agreed to increase our grant towards spire repairs.

"The grant payment has been increased from 60 to 70 per cent of the total cost and now includes all eligible costs."

About £90,000 has been raised through donations from kind-hearted residents and organisations and numerous fund-raising events.

Mr Salt said: "We are hoping to get the scaffolding up in three to four weeks and to complete the work by the spring."

The first stage of work will involve knocking down the top part of the spire and rebuilding it stone by stone, replacing any where necessary.

"We are delighted and relieved that we can retain this public monument,'' said Mr Salt.

"The important thing is that we can keep it now, otherwise we might have had to make the hard decision that we couldn't afford to restore it and it would have had to come down."