A doctor at the Royal Stoke Hospital who's hoping to establish a new mosque and Islamic centre in Newcastle-under-Lyme has spoken about his plans for the former St Peter's Church.

Dr Arshad Jamil and his colleagues won an auction in October and have committed £500,000 to secure the religious building on Pilkington Avenue.

They're now fundraising to reach their goal. They have already raised £300,000 and are seeking a further £250,000 to cover the cost of the building and repairs.

To date, they've raised just over £18,000 towards their £250,000 goal.

Dr Jamil said: "We have been thinking about it for several years now because there's no place of worship in the area, so this was an ideal opportunity.

"The first thing was we wanted to acquire [the building], it's not in a great shape so we need to concentrate and get some repairs done and make the place a little more usable."

The group plans to meet with local representatives to discuss ideas on how the building could be opened up again for the community.

Dr Jamil said: "The main thing is to have somewhere for prayers and later on we want to have some community activities going on as well.

"There were a few things going on there – my granddaughter used to go the the playgroup, but a couple of years ago they stopped that.

"Being a community place, it should stay as it is rather than having multiple houses or flats."

He acknowledged the building needs considerable repairs – including to the floor of the large hall which adjoins the main church.

Dr Jamil is optimistic his group's plans will come to fruition and they will raise the funds required.

He said: "We're quite hopeful we'll be able to do it. The Islamic community is quite generous generally. I don't think we will have any problem."

It's a requirement of Islam that worshippers donate their excess wealth to those in need.

This is known as 'Zakat' and is sometimes described as a charitable form of taxation, which Muslims believe purifies, increases and blesses the remainder of their wealth

Dr Jamil explained: "Things like the food bank, and these kinds of things, people are generally quite supportive and generous and I think it'll be a good service for the community at large."

He also spoke about their motivation for wanting to secure the building.

He said there's nowhere for his colleagues and their families to pray, and when the church was put up for sale it presented the ideal opportunity to establish a religious space for them.

He said: "They don't have anywhere to say their prayers, so that's the prime goal."

Dr Jamil added that the doctors are talking with a group of local residents who've been trying to save the church building since it was first put on the market.

He said: "There will be other things we'll be working on – to see what, between us, what we can provide to a certain degree, to continue with some of the activities the Methodists were doing in the past.

"We are meeting with representatives from the SOS group [Save St Peters Church]."