LED by a band of drummers, residents and supporters marched through Dulverton last Saturday to protest against the threatened closure of the town’s Catholic church and a popular residential centre which has been used by Olympic athletes.

More than 1,500 people have already signed a petition to stop the Dulverton Residential Centre and the adjoining church of St Stanislaus being sold for residential development by the Clifton Diocese.

After Saturday’s march, over 150 people gathered in a field beside the River Barle to enjoy free soft drinks, cake and cider, and hear proposals from the recently-formed Dulverton Catholic Parish Action Group which could result in parishioners taking over the centre and running it as a charitable trust.

The meeting heard that the centre was due to close at the end of the year and campaigners claimed that the church building was so close that it would also have to be sold.

The action group this week submitted a fully-costed business plan to the Diocese as part of a consultation process which ends on Sunday (September 1).

Action group chairman Simon Rous, who has worshipped at St Stanislaus for nearly 50 years, said he still hoped that the Diocese could be persuaded to look again at the closure plans.

In the meantime, he was hoping for discussions on the future of the centre, which he felt could be modernised and made more profitable.

Converted from a priest’s house in the 1950s, the centre accommodates up to 36 people and is popular with youth groups, schools and colleges who row on Wimbleball Lake, kayak and canoe on the River Barle and enjoy sports activities on Exmoor.

Protestors were told that the Clifton Diocese felt the centre was too expensive to maintain and did not “further its charitable objectives”.

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