A church has received a grant to buy solar panels.

The United Reform Church of Halstead, King’s Road, received £15,000 from the Essex Environment Trust to put 40 solar panels on the church’s roof.

The church’s secretary, Eddie Morley, said: “The Essex Environment Trust are very good at supporting projects like ours and we are very pleased to have been awarded this money.

“Many of our members have solar panels on their roofs and we thought that it is a good way of investing church funds as, being a church, we can only get very low interest rates on our savings.

“The panels are going on a flat roof so they will only be visible by helicopters and won’t impede on anyone.

“We are currently in negotiations with two firms and hope to have the panels on the church by the end of May.”