The priest of an 'island' church fears he may lose out on vital funding for a community hall.

St Mary's RC Church and its presbytery are the only buildings left in East Parade because others have been demolished.

But the historic church, built for German wool merchants, is sandwiched between Little Germany - originally the wool merchants' quarter and one of Britain's first urban villages - and Barkerend, which has submitted a bid for more than £28 million from the Government's Single Regeneration Budget.

And, to confuse things further, the diocesan primary school linked to St Mary's is officially within the precinct of Bradford Cathedral.

Now parish priest Father Michael Sullivan is contacting Bradford Council asking: "Where are we?"

He said: "The worry is that because we seem to fall between two areas, which would probably both receive extra funding, we may lose out completely."

Father Sullivan said other properties on East Parade had been pulled down to make way for the Shipley-Airedale bypass.

"It left us on a little island and even people delivering goods don't know where we are," he added.

He said the church dated back to the time when German priests set up a mission for the wool merchants in Little Germany in the 1800s. "The German merchants came because they had a method of combing wool which wasn't here in England. The German priests came over as well."

The presbytery has furniture and silver dating back to 1800s with the family crest of Canon John Mottler and Canon Edwin Alphonsus Schreiber.

The parish now wants to turn an existing hall on the site into a community centre which would have activities including a teatime club for parents and children and an advice centre.

Councillor John Ryan, chairman of Bradford North Area Panel, which deals with the SRB, said: "I will look into this. I think it fits into our area and I hope they would put in an application for community facilities."

Nigel Rice, project manager of the Little Germany Urban Village Company, said the church did not fall within Little Germany in spite of historic links. He added: "But we are looking at the area and do not think the church should regard itself in isolation."

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