A CANCER charity has been told its volunteers can no longer park in a church car park.

Volunteers at the Helen Rollason Cancer Charity store in Burnham High Street have been using the space at Burnham Baptist Church, which is directly opposite the store, to park for more than ten years.

However, charity representatives were told this week that the church will no longer allow the volunteers to use their car park.

The charity was told the car park would now be for parishioners only.

Avril Kent, retail manager for the Burnham and Danbury charity stores, said: “Helen Rollason Cancer Charity were disappointed to be told that they can no longer park at the Baptist Church in the High Street.

“We have always appreciated the use of the car park, and only take up a maximum of two spaces daily. Many of our volunteers are retired or elderly, and being able to park just across the road from the shop, especially in the winter months, has been very helpful.

“Burnham is a rural town, and many of our volunteers travel in from outlying villages, and being able to park close to the shop is an obvious benefit.

“I’m surprised that we are unable to work together to a satisfactory conclusion, especially as this concerns a cancer charity and Baptist church, which you would think had a common goal of working together for the community.”

While free parking is available in Burnham town centre, the charity believes many volunteers would not be able to work at the store due to increased distances to walk there. “Our concern is that we may lose some of our valuable and committed volunteers because of this.We are a busy shop, and volunteers are essential to its successful operation.

“We have a core of dedicated volunteers and are always looking to recruit additional volunteers to support us in our quest to raise funds for this worthwhile charity.

Ms Kent added:”We hope we can conclude this satisfactorily as I believe both organisations are trying to be good Samaritans in their own way.”

A spokesman for Burnham Baptist Church said: “The church car park is open to all users of the church, including air cadets, those attending church services, Breakaway Toddler Group, bereavement support group, and pensioners day centre.

“Free parking had been permitted to those working at the charity shop and others.

“Unfortunately, unauthorised parking caused a situation where those using the church could not park. There was also a danger posed to children and the elderly using the church.

“Sadly we had no choice but to introduce the current restrictions.”

Update Wednesday June 13

Following the announcement by the church, the Burnham Constitutional Club have stepped in to allow volunteers of the Helen Rollason shop to park at their premises just over the way from the church.

Secretary Andy Plant said the club had seen posts from the volunteers on Facebook.

He said: "Our chairman Douglas Bown spotted some of the Facebook posts, and so had a chat with the committee about it.

"We have a car park which is quite regularly used but always has space for a couple more vehicles.

"So we had a meeting with the folks at Helen Rollason and said that as long as it was only a couple of cars at one time they could use our car park without charge.

"We thought it was the right thing to do, they're a charity doing work for free, and if you can't help them, what can you do."

This update was announced after the Standard went to print and did not feature in this week's edition.