A New Church Building - A New Beginning

We are fast approaching an exciting and challenging time in our re-development programme. Events are moving more quickly than expected and we are now being presented with an amazing opportunity to secure the future for our Church on the existing Church Street site. We hope to have a purpose-built worship area, which would be flexible in size and provide opportunities for a range of uses, and also a building which incorporates activity and community areas both for Church and outside use. Plus, of course, all the usual service rooms and facilities and a lift operating between the two floors.

Members of the Steering Committee have been meeting frequently between themselves and with our architect, Tom Roberts, who made a presentation at the Church Meeting on 21st May 2008, soon after which it was agreed that we should pursue the proposal from a developer working on behalf of a local educational establishment. Tom Roberts and the developer have come back to us with a more detailed plan that, in essence, means that we have the opportunity for a complete re-build of our Church and associated premises. The Church would be built at the front of the existing site and the remainder of the existing building would also be demolished to provide newly built student accommodation. Unity Hall would be sold to the developers as part of the project. The new Church Building would be on two floors with sufficient space for both services and activity areas, meeting space, coffee areas etc. The key to the design will be flexibility for a wide variety of uses.

The proposed timescale for all this is very demanding. If all goes ahead as planned the existing Church Building could be demolished this autumn with the new Church Building being finished and ready for occupation by September 2009. Unity Hall would be available for our use until the beginning of April 2009 when it would undergo significant internal alterations to provide more student accommodation. All the student accommodation needs to be ready for September 2009 when the whole project should be finished.

There is much detail still to be finalised and we are very conscious of the needs of all the people and organisations currently using our premises. We shall do our best to limit inconvenience to all concerned but inevitably there will be disruption and a short period when we have to manage without any premises (i.e. April-September 2009). Of course, much could happen during the Planning process and there are many hurdles to overcome but this is the plan as it stands at present.
The next step is to put a full proposal to Church Meeting on Wednesday 16th July 2008 when Tom Roberts will again be present and a vote on this proposal will be taken. To this end our Church Secretary will be writing to all members and adherents advising them of this important Meeting.