PART of Huddersfield's St Patrick's Centre is to become a home for people from different communities.

Huddersfield-based Cultures United, an umbrella organisation for seven groups, is leasing the top floor of the Trinity Street centre.

The organisation will hire the top floor on a permanent basis for social activities.

The rooms will provide a base for a range of activities which promote cultural diversity, including dance sessions and cooking workshops.

Jill Smith, from Cultures United - which was set up last year - said that while the town's Chinese community was large enough to rent its own centre, others, like the Polish, Arabian and Filipino communities, were too small.

Cultures United pools resources for the hire of the centre.

The top floor has two rooms: a lounge and a hall.

They are being leased from the Catholic Dioceses of Leeds.

Most other groups which previously used the hall have had to find other venues, while a few have been allowed to remain.

One of those is The Phoenix Club, which caters for divorced and separated people. They are to use rooms on the first floor of the centre for their regular dances.