Petrus Community Store

Opening of the Petrus Community Store

The Petrus Community the local charity which helps homeless people is launching a new venture; the Petrus Community Store on Hamer Lane in Rochdale.

The Community Store will recycle a wide variety of furniture, household goods, clothing and bric-a-brac to raise funds to help Petrus to continue providing for those in need of support and housing within the Borough. The venture will also provide training, volunteering and employment opportunities for local people. It is planned to carry out minor repairs to donated goods.

Denis Skelton, Co-ordinator for Petrus said: "This new and exciting venture is a big undertaking and has been a long journey from the original idea to having fully equipped premises, volunteers, staff, transport and all the donated goods in place. There have been a number of setbacks along the way, including premises identified earlier which were then made unusable due to vandalism an initial rejection of planning permission.

"However, these setbacks were temporary and we are now open in time for Christmas. We hope as many as possible will come and visit the Community Store, a warm welcome awaits everyone."

Claire Jefferies, Petrus Community Store manager, added: "We do depend on the volunteers so much and we are planning to offer volunteers formal training and qualifications. There are all sorts of ways that volunteers can support Petrus’ work and we would love to hear from anyone who is interested in helping.’"