St Mary's Hall Appeal

WHY DOES ST MARY’S NEED A NEW CHURCH HALL?

( from a presentation given to the St Mary’s AGM 21 April 2005 )

Option 1 – Retain and repair the existing hall

Why?

• Least change involved
• We’ve done some repair work recently – e.g. main hall roof
• Looks OK from car park and entrance

But...

• Entire structure needs major repair – walls, roofs, floors, windows; the Heritage project began to address this
• Roofs at rear especially bad – leaking and can’t simply be patched up; altogether inappropriate design
• Likely cost of redesigning and reconstructing roofs at back alone would run into tens of thousands of pounds at least
• Facilities afforded don’t justify major expenditure: 2 halls with poor acoustics, stage no longer needed, toilets primitive (though always clean!), kitchen the only decent facility

Option 2 – Refurbish existing hall

Why?

• Design was prepared by architect to create upper fall in small hall, with meeting rooms; redesigned ground floor for multi-purpose use; providing facilities disabled access etc; comprehensive repair of walls, roofs, floors, windows
• Entirely possible – was fall-back option if planning permission not granted for new hall between church and rectory
• Retains Church Hall as important Victorian building in centre of village

But...

• Very expensive (net cost more than new hall)
• Unsatisfactory – layout of building doesn’t lend itself to refurbishment and internal redesign
• Sloping site would have made disabled access difficult
• Ongoing maintenance costs high – building 130+ years old

Option 3 – Replace with new hall between church and rectory

Why?

• Cost less than refurbishing existing hall after sale proceeds from existing hall. Also no VAT on new buildings
• Ongoing costs less than on refurbished hall – minimal maintenance for first 10 years or so
• More economical to run. Heat efficiency (better heating system, insulation in walls, roof, windows)
• More suitable for intended Church uses – has been designed from scratch, not fitted awkwardly into existing building
• More attractive to outside users than existing hall, refurbished or not – generating useful extra income
• Will attract people to St Mary’s – a forward looking, well-equipped church.
• Retains existing hall as important Victorian building in centre of village, making it available for 7 dwellings for over-55s

But...

• Will cost us a net cost of £500k – a big mountain to climb

Option 4 – Relinquish Church Hall altogether

Why?

• No need for fundraising to repair, refurbish or replace hall!!
• Invest proceeds of old hall and use income to pay for hire of other facilities e.g. Grange Hall

But...

• Grange Hall unsuitable for many of our intended uses – too big
• Grange Hall heavily used already
• Expense – we’d always be thinking “does this activity justify the expense?”
• Loss of flexibility we take for granted now
• One of the reasons Grange Hall was built was because the village had insufficient public space