A community centre has received a grant of almost one million pounds to safeguard its future.

St Werburghs Community Centre on Horley Road will spend the £994,484 grant on refurbishing the main building and also constructing a spacious new annexe.

As part of the grant, once the work is completed Bristol City Council will give St Werburghs Community Association the building on a long-term 35-year lease.

Work will start on the centre this summer, transforming the building so it will be able to benefit and accommodate more people and local organisations, voluntary groups and charities than ever before.

It already is open seven days a week, offering a wide range of services and activities that involve fitness, accredited courses, IT and adult learning.

The refurbished building will continue to provide a base for existing tenants including KHASS, a group that supports Asian families with special needs children, Hi-Road studios, a youth music group for young people at risk, and Bristol Wireless, which recycles computer waste.

Linda Bell, project manager at the centre, said: "The centre is one of the most active and well-used community resources in the city.

"But it has always had a shortage of meeting rooms and useable community spaces. The improvements and new annexe will provide much-needed service in the area."

She added: "It's absolutely the future of the centre that we are ensuring.

"It was essential for us to get this money because the building, an old Victorian school, was beginning to be in such poor condition, there were doubts over its very survival.

"This money will bring the building back to life. We wanted a better centre for the people in the local area and to secure its future."

"Money for the centre's grant came from Community Assets, funded by the Office of the Third Sector in the Cabinet Office.

The money was distributed by The Big Lottery Fund (BIG), that distributes lottery funding to health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK. Around £30 million of government funding has been distributed through Community Assets since it was launched in 2007.

Mark Cotton, BIG's head of region for the South West, said: "This project is a great example of a community project that will benefit the wider east Bristol community together with disabled adults and children, unemployed people, young people, older people, refugee families and asylum seekers."

Detailed plans and artists' impressions of the new annex and information about the refurbishment can be viewed at the centre on Horley Road. Alternatively, telephone 0117 955 1351.