PAID for by the sale of the old vicarage, built within six months, and environmentally friendly, with plenty of space for church work as well as private accommodation, the parish of Leiston, in the diocese of St Edmundsbury & Ipswich, now has a well-designed and good-looking new vicarage to welcome the new Priest-in-Charge, the Revd Martin Phillips-Last, and his family.

Work started last July on the site of a bungalow, Harvest Lodge, and was completed in January. A second floor was added to create a vicarage built to high environmental standards to reduce running costs and maintenance, and the total cost was £210,000.

The Acting Bishop of St Edmundsbury & Ipswich, Dr David Thomson, Bishop of Huntingdon, said that the new vicarage was good news for the diocese. "We want to keep clergy living in as many local communities as we can, and we want to do our bit for the environment, too, as this new house does."