BIG-hearted churchgoers in the Waterside area have again been digging deep into their pockets for a major rebuilding project aimed at helping their whole community.

Hythe United Reformed Church was given a flying start to a £2m scheme aimed at transforming its site off New Road when its national church lined up a £1m grant.

Donations from the congregation and fundraising activities pulled in a further £300,000.

Now renewed efforts are being made to find the additional money needed and push it towards that magical £2m figure.

If they achieve their ambition, it will mean that three churches in the Waterside area have between them pumped an incredible £3m into community building projects in the space of a decade, with the hall at nearby parish church of St John and the St Andrew's Centre at Dibden Purlieu both in full swing.

United Reformed Church fund-raising co-ordinator and church elder Peter Blasby said: "The congregation is not enormous - about 200 or something like that - and although we are in a nice leafy part of the country, there aren't a lot of millionaires about."

Church workers are hoping for community support. Mr Blasby added: "When many people see a church rebuilding project, they think it is just the church.

"But this is being done because of the work we do for the community."

Some of that work involves providing courses which help teenage single mums adapt to the demands of motherhood. Work is also done with youngsters who have lost their school places.

The church is also renowned for the facilities it has provided in the past for blood donation sessions and the New Forest Opportunity Group, which has given outstanding service to the area for decades.

Its present activities include flourishing Boys' Brigade and Girls' Brigade units, badminton, a youth club and a women's guild.

In view of its help for the county's social services work and the district's crime prevention campaigns, the church is applying for grant aid from both Hampshire and New Forest councils.

The work will involve the major community hall building and levelling the sloping floor in the church itself, which will remain but will be refurbished where necessary.