The foundations are being laid for a new church on the former Watford Springs swimming pool site in central Watford.

Watford Community Church won planning permission to build a two-and-a-half storey church centre with an auditorium, café, training and children's facilities, with six parking spaces in June 2008.

Construction work on The Wellspring Church Centre has now started and, following the completion of the foundations, a steel structure will be erected in the next few weeks.

The church, which has existed in Watford for more than 60 years, has been based at Watford Grammar School for Girls for the past 17 years.

But members hope the new centre will meet the needs of their congregation as well as serving the wider community.

Senior minister Tim Roberts said: “Back in 2006 we were delighted when our bid for the ‘community land’ owned by Watford Borough Council was successful.

“We were confident we could design, build and run a church centre that would be good news for local people. Now we are watching the building take shape and we look forward to opening in the autumn of 2010.”

He added: “As we continue to invest in a number of projects to help people overseas, we are also committed to doing our bit to help people in our town. While Phase One of The Wellspring isn’t very big, we do expect it to be an excellent facility that local people will make use of including groups and businesses looking for a town-centre venue for meetings and conferences.”

Phase One of the new centre will include a number of training/activity rooms, a fair-trade internet café and an auditorium for 200 people.

During the planning application process, fears had been raised that the site was unsuitable for a development of this nature with a lack of parking.

However, Watford Borough Council's development control committee approved plans with conditions to restrict vehicle access to the site.

Watford Community Church will share the former Watford Springs site with house building company Taylor Wimpey, who have permission to build 129 new dwellings there.

For more information about the new church centre, visit www.the-wellspring.org.