In 2025 we started to look at our strategy for our 3 main buildings (The Church, the Old Vic and the Hall). We have identified the main challenges – accessibility, parking, toilets, poor kitchens, heating, lighting and storage space. While we have maintained the buildings to a reasonable standard, they are now due for a major refresh to ensure they are fit for purpose for the coming decades, and flexible enough to meet our future needs.
Since our last update a couple of months ago, we have had written responses from 4 architects and have interviewed each of them. As a result, we have now appointed MEB Design Ltd to work with us to explore the feasibility of making improvements to the buildings to ensure we are able to fulfil our mission into the middle of this century.
We need to do this properly, so it will take a little time. We will start by gathering more input from the key users of each building and the owners of our mission action plans. It is going to be important that we catch the vision of what’s next, rather than just assuming what we are doing today will continue as it is for the next 20 years. It’s going to be exciting!
Once we have a very clear “Statement of needs” outlining our requirements in more detail, then we can start exploring options for change. We will ensure we consult fully with all the statutory approvals bodies, as well as with our congregation and neighbours. This is probably not going to be until 2027, so please be patient and get involved so you can share your thoughts on what we need to move forward with our mission and vision.
Alan Nunn
Buildings Development Group
