Cause End Road
Wootton
Bedfordshire
MK43 9DE
Building Project
Update June 2010
More change......
The results of the structural survey identified that there are some serious structural issues that need to be rectified before any further construction work can commenece. This could cost an additional £20,0000.
With this in mind it was agreed at an Extraordinary General Meeting that we should not commit any further funds at this stage and use the next few months to review our plans and how we can achieve our strategic goals.
Update May 2010
We have recently heard that our grant application to Veolia Environmental Trust has been declined. This was not due to anything being wrong with our project, but they were very over subscribed and so didn’t have sufficient funds to award us a grant. We can re-apply to them in 12 months. There are still some other organisations that we can apply to but at present we are around £50,000 short of our overall target. We are continuing to get quotes so that we can review and finalise our plans for the project and still aim to commence this in the summer.
Update April 2010
We have now raised a total of £130,400 towards our building project and we are waiting to hear the outcome of our grant application to Veolia Environmental Trust later this month.
We have now had full approval and are in the process of getting a structural survey carried out and applying for building regs. We aim to commence work during the summer and finish by November/December.
If you would like to make a donation please contact our Treasurer, Lisa Beamish on 01234 768950.
Update February 2010
We have now raised a total of £130,400 towards our building project and have recently submitted a grant application to Veolia Environmental Trust. In order to do this we have had to adjust the proposed budget to take into account additional known costs and the increase in VAT.
The approval process to go ahead with the project is continuing, the District Property Panel have now recommended that the project be approved, subject to a structural survey being carried out, so we are now in discussions with the Methodist Church property department in Manchester to get their final approval which we understand may take a few more weeks.
If you would like to make a donation please contact our Treasurer, Lisa Beamish on 01234 768950.
Update December 2009
Our plans have been approved and we are making great progress in securing funding.
The overall target is £160,000. This will allow us to refurbish the existing property, build a side extension and a loft conversion to create additional much needed space. Our aim is to open a drop in ‘coffee shop’ area throughout the week that can be used by young and old alike as well as expanding our worship area and creating other multi purpose community facilities.
To date we have secured £128,900.
If you would like to make a donation please contact our Treasurer, Lisa Beamish on 01234 768950.
The plans include:
- Re-modelling the internal space to create flexible multi use worship area
- Flexible entrance lobby/ coffee area
- Turn worship area around 90o
- New youth room upstairs
- New staircase
- Re-model access in/out of hall, kitchen & lounge
Summary of plans
The hall roof will be lifted to create more space for the upstairs room.
The top of the hall walls will be rebuilt and raised. There will be high level Velux windows in the upstairs room and on the upstairs landing.
There will be no changes to the overall look of the exterior of the main building although the front wall will be sandblasted and there will be new front doors and windows.
The side extension will create a new entrance lobby & coffee area approx 9m x 4m. It will be set back around 4m from the front of the original building. This will have glazed stainless steel doors and a glass canopy over. The brick work on the extension will match the existing building. There will be ramped access to this new entrance. The west side of the building backs on to our boundary so we cannot have side windows, however, there will be a glass atrium style roof to this area.
The main worship area will be re-modelled to provide a large flexible space. The floor will be replaced and will include under floor heating. There will be a large glazed folding door between the new entrance lobby/coffee lounge and the main worship space. The windows on the west side of the church will be lowered to ground level to provide additional light and vision between the two areas.
The existing vestry/office will have a new ‘stable’ door across the corner to create a bigger access space into the rear of the building. The existing window in this room will be removed and replaced with a new roof light.
There will be new doors along the corridor to allow for more flexible use of the various areas of the building and increased fire safety.There will be a new staircase giving access to the new room above the church hall.
In the church hall the high level windows will be removed and the door to the back of the hall will be repositioned to give more direct access to the kitchen. The door to the lounge will be relocated and replaced with double doors to give better access to this room. All windows will be replaced with double glazed units (except kitchen and hall where there are already double glazed windows).
The existing pram store will be changed to an internal storage area and a new rear door will be fitted to allow better access to the existing store.
There will be a new youth room upstairs. This room will be approx 10m x 9m and will have a partition to allow the room to be divided approx 70:30. On the landing there will be a high level door giving access to the loft space in the original building.
