We are delighted to announce that our application to Veolia Environmental Trust for a major grant towards phase 2 of Project Welcome has been successful.
We have applied for and will be receiving £75,000! (£74,999 to be precise!)
For those of you who have waited patiently for some further progress towards the reopening of the front door, this is especially good news.




​Phase 2 of Project Welcome comprises

• removal of the old toilets that are currently still in the original entrance area behind the bricked up front door
• restoration of the original main entrance facing Clifton Road
• establishment of full external and internal disabled access
• improvement of internal circulation
• opening up the church auditorium for more community use by creating a new door between the church hall and the worship space
• creating much-needed storage space for user groups
• creating a purpose-built audio-visual room
• improving the lighting in the church hall.

We are thrilled to be able to make further progress towards our ambition of making our building better reflect the welcome we seek to give to our community.
For many years the bricked up front door has been a source of sadness for many people in our community and it has sent out the unhelpful message that “we are closed”. We really believe that creating a more welcoming entrance as well as the rearrangements internally will revitalise this essential community asset which is so well placed to continue to serve the people in our parish.
Further information about the total cost of this phase 2 will follow shortly as well as a timeline of how we hope the work will be completed.
For now, we rejoice and praise God as well as, of course, expressing our thankfulness to Veolia and everyone who helped us towards this bid: local councillors, headteachers, community hall users.

This morning some of the congregation were able to take a look around the virtually completed interior of the new extension. The grand opening (and first flush!!) will hopefully be on Sunday June 3rd, we need some time to move in, fill the soap dispensers and work out how the new 'gadgets' work.  But we are very pleased and excited to put up the sign acknowleging the huge difference the grant from WREN made in making this work possible. 
This is just phase one. We are holding an open day with Community BBQ lunch on Saturday July 14th and will be telling everyone then about our plans for phase two which are already well under way. But before we plough it's right to stop, celebrate and give thanks for the many people who have helped get us this far. 

These are the questions I get asked almost every time someone stops me outside church to ask about the building work. This happened again today so I thought an update might help.
Phase 1: comprises news toilets and a small community operations room. This phase is nearly complete and has been/will be paid for by the congregation's huge generosity plus hugely significant donations large and small from funds and organisations and interested individuals. (Scroll back through this blog for info) 

But the bit everyone is interested in AND the most important bit (in my opinion) is the opening of that bricked up front door.

This is Phase 2: a new entrance where the old door is currently bricked up, clearing away the draughtly old toilets that were in the porch space, plus a new entrance from the church hall into the worship space, creating a better link between the two parts of the building, and finally a new Audio visual cupboard/hub to serve both the worship space and the community space and also some large purpose built cupboards for storage.  Raising funds for this phase are ongoing. Creating a welcoming entrance is key to our becoming a more visible and useful asset to our community. 

Will there be a phase 3? We hope so... we have all  the plans and all the permissions but would need to keep fund-raising. It would involve the installation of a lift upstairs from the new door porch area into a second community facility which would be served by its own kitchenette and toilet. The lift would give separate and disabled access, allowing both spaces to be used simultaneously by different groups. 

Base coat on the walls, lights in the ceilings, cupboard in the hallway. All good stuff this week.