Our Build project is completed....on hold.....
Phase one is complete. The space is amazing. Already a number of new community groups and opportunities are presenting themselves and we hope and pray that phase two will become viable in the not too distant future.
Havering Road Methodist Church Big Build Summary
This is a building project designed to unify a disjointed site and substantially increase the church family opportunities for witness, service, mission and outreach.
We currently have a Rema building which was erected in 1957, and a modern church building which was erected in 1974. We also have a portacabin situated to the rear of the site which has been in place over ten years and is no longer viable. These various meeting areas are linked by very unsatisfactory corridors.
The Big Build is designed to unify the site, making a single entrance to serve all areas of the building, extending and rebuilding rooms to the rear, creating a large central meeting area which will include a refreshment point that can be accessed from all sections of the building, greatly improving the visual frontage to give the message 'you are welcome, this is your church'.
The Big Build will bring all facilities in to line with current accessibility legislation and strengthen our responsibilities in the area of Safeguarding.
At present we are unable to access any of the side rooms without going through the main hall. The kitchen is attached to the hall in such a way that when the hall is in use, the kitchen is in effect out of bounds. This restricts how we can use the church space during the week in relation to community groups and mission activities. Our hall is in use, either for pre-school, church community groups or uniformed groups, to full capacity. We aspire to a site where the hall and kitchen could be in constant use by external groups without diminishing what we can offer to our church family or to the local community.
The Big Build will greatly increase our opportunities in the area of community outreach and this is the main motivator in the scale of the build. If we simply dealt with the need we would not open up future opportunity for the next 50 years, and a driving purpose behind the plans is to provide a site that future generations can employ in a versatile and dynamic way.
Like many ambitious projects the seeds of this were a need to deal with property issues on the existing site, namely the dilapidation of the portacabin and issues with damp in the side room in the same area of the site. Discussions then led to the frustration at not being able to utilise our own site as much as we would like because if the hall is in use by external groups the kitchen is also out of action and this frustrates many ideas for midweek activities. We agreed that if major attention was needed to the rear, now might be a good time to evaluate the whole site, and thus the project was born.
Phase one was completed 18 months ago to secure the planning permission. We are in the final furlong we hope of securing a funding package which will mean we can start work later this year. Our thanks to The City of London Corporation's charity City Bridge Trust for a grant of £59,000 towards the accessiblilty elements of the project, securing a full disabled wet room facility and level access througout.
Wehave recently gained consent from The Methodist Church thanks to a very generous grant matching that of Veolia Trust, whose logo will soon join those below when the grant that is being held for us is confirmed. There is still a small funding shortfall and grants are still being sought but we are now starting the tender process and hopefully building will start early 2017.
Any financial, or fund raising help you feel you can offer naturally appreciated. This is very much a testament of faith for it is a massive undertaking for quite a small church community but we believe we have a calling to service and worship and this will secure that calling for future generations, just as first building the church did 59 years ago. It would seem The Build may well come to fruition through our 60th year - which seems a natural piece of God's timing.
