The owner of a now partially destroyed church says he remains 'very committed' to its transformation.

Emergency services were called to St John the Baptist's Church in Bollington on Saturday, August 22, after a large part of its roof collapsed in.

Entrepreneur Mark Simpkin purchased the property over a decade ago, securing planning permission to convert it into 13 apartments in October 2010.

However, he then went through a 'very difficult personal period' as his marriage broke down, resulting in him losing 50% of his assets.

At this point, the cost of the developing the church, first built in the 1830s, was around £2 million.

"It knocked the project back badly," Mr Simpkin said.

"Once I was back on my feet, we went to re-establish the planning permission.

"Cheshire East took the view that we hadn't made a 'meaningful start on-site, even though we believed we had we'd begun interior works and moved headstones.

"By this point, the cost of the conversion had risen from roughly £2 million to over £4 million, which made the original scheme financially unviable."

Mr Simpkin continued: "We applied to increase the scheme from 13 to 16 apartments to help make the numbers work. That was refused.

"We currently have an application in for 13 apartments, but on its own it isn't financially viable, we need enabling development permission alongside it to make the project deliverable.

"I know a lot of people in Bollington have been incredibly supportive, and I'm grateful for that. But I also know people are forming opinions without the full picture, and that's been hard to sit with. I won't be commenting further on the personal side of this, anyone who wants to follow the project can do so through Bollington's community channels.

"Thank you for bearing with me and be reassured that me and my two sons are very committed to this project."

At 2.50pm on Saturday, Cheshire Police received reports that a disused church building had collapsed on Church Street in Bollington.

Police, fire and ambulance crews all attended the scene.

A police drone was used to search the building and confirm that there was nobody inside.

Thankfully, there were no reports of any injuries and emergency services left the scene at around 5pm.

A spokesperson for Bollington Town Council added: "The collapse is undoubtably tragic and has caused waves of emotion through the community."