AS one door closes another one opens even further for the parishioners of St Mary's Church, Burley-in-Wharfedale.

Part of the proceeds of the sell off of the now closed village Church of England school will go towards major improvements at the church's Open Door project.

Other church facilities in Burley will also be improved following the sale of land at the site of the former Aireville Terrace school.

The school was closed last year - despite fierce opposition both from the parish church and within the village community - following Bradford Council's reorganisation of the education system.

The land is now being developed for housing. Part of the land was owned by a Trust Fund, on behalf of St Mary's Church. A sum of £600,000 has now been placed into the Trust Fund.

The fund will be administered by the Diocese of Bradford, on behalf of the Church, and can only be used for Parish Church purposes within Burley-in-Wharfedale. The Rev Peter Sutcliffe, Vicar of St Mary's said "I can still remember the bitter sadness we all felt the day that Burley C ofE First School closed. To have this amount of money available for use in the church because of the closure of the school is a very bitter-sweet pill to swallow.

"There are some restrictions on how we can use the money, which means were not allowed to do some of the things we'd really like to do." One of the things that the fund's trustees will allow the money to be used for is projects which help the Church to care for members of the community.

Part of the money is to be used to expand the work of the Open Door Project. At present the project shares space with St Mary's Church office, but ever since it opened, it has welcomed so many visitors, an average of 120 a week, that it has always been short of space.

Subject to planning consent, Open Door will be expanding next door to its present home, into space which will became available after Capricorn hairdressers move to other premises in the village.

There are plans to install central heating, improve the toilets, and make the whole building accessible to people with disabilities.

Glynne Edwards, the former head teacher of the school in Aireville Terrace said: "The school had a long tradition of serving the village, and whilst I bitterly regret the school's closure, I'm delighted that the Church has been able to find a way of using some of the money from the sale of the land, to continue that tradition of care."

The congregation at St Marys has been growing quickly in recent months, with a big increase in the number of children going to the church.

Part of the Trust Fund may well be used to provide facilities to accommodate the growing number of families and children, along with some much-needed maintenance work.