Community cash saves abbey jobs

Five people work at the church which costs £500 a day to run

Staff at a North Yorkshire abbey are celebrating after local residents and businesses stumped up the cash to save their jobs until the end of 2004.

Supporters have raised £35,000 after an appeal was launched in February to meet the daily staff costs of Selby Abbey.

It means the cathedral-sized church can afford to keep on its full-time verger and four other staff.

The Reverend Keith Jukes, the abbey's vicar, said staff had been overwhelmed by the generosity shown.

Running costs

"There have been donations of hundreds of pounds," he said.

"But perhaps the most moving came from someone on income support who sent £5 and apologised that it wasn't more."

The 1,000-year-old structure costs about £500 to run and is identified by the World Monuments Fund as among the 100 most endangered world treasures.

A restoration appeal for the abbey has raised £4m, but that money was not available for the current emergency.

The preferred long-term solution to keep the abbey afloat would be a £1m endowment fund to produce a regular income for running costs.