Update on the Space Building Project 

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

It’s been a very long time since there was a notice updating us on the progress of our Space Building Project. Despite the huge disruption the Covid-19 Pandemic has brought on our lives together over the last two years; a lot has actually happened regarding the project in the last 10-12 months and now is the right time to update everyone regarding the current situation. There is so much to say, (so please be prepared to hear a lot of information). 

We start with last August (2021) with a visit from the Diocesan Advisory Committee for the Care of Churches or DAC. This group of people is made up of technical members (architects, surveyors, archaeologists etc.) and pastoral members (archdeacons and vicars) and advises the Chancellor of the Diocese (whose a bit like a judge) on whether proposals for changes to a church building should be permitted (this is called Faculty consent, which is sort of like an internal Planning Permission for the Church of England).

The DAC delegation met with Mike Moir and myself and the meeting was very warm and constructive. They spent the majority of the afternoon in the parish and were keen to look both at the site here on the Warwick Road and also up at Prescott Avenue. They listened carefully and took a lot of interest in the life and activities of the church and to the reasoning behind our plans. They were very keen to support us and to see our plans succeed. However, they did raise some questions and concerns, which I will divide into 3 groups:

1. The first group of concerns relates to relatively minor comments on the existing design, such as the shape of the roof and how it drains, disabled access to the chancel (that’s the bit where the music group are) and so on. None of these matters were insurmountable and would simply require minor changes to the design.

2. The second group of concerns were to do with the cost.

a. Firstly, the principle aim of the project is to replace the hall at the back of Warwick Road, with an integrated church centre. Such facilities are likely to lead to, or support, further church growth, but the current scheme only delivers a marginal increase in the number of seats within the church. The question they therefore posed, was, is spending £2.4 million on the project actually delivering value for money, if it doesn’t also provide more space for a growing congregation to worship together?
b. The second concern they had regarding cost related to affordability. Whilst raising £1.25 million is an amazing achievement and we praise God for this, it has taken us 10 years to get there. Therefore they questioned: Will we be able to raise the rest before inflation moves the target further out of reach? (It’s worth noting at this point that you have to have all the funds in place or a realistic and viable plan to raise the rest within 12 months in order to apply for and then get Faculty consent.)
c. The third concern they had regarding cost was whether we could afford to renovate this site, and then carry on and carry out much needed renovations at Prescott Avenue and then to maintain both buildings going forward.

3. And finally, the third group of concerns related to the suitability of this site to be the location of a multi-day a week church centre, especially when there is no parking (other than residential streets) and the access to the site for construction is so incredibly difficult and expensive.

The PCC met to discuss the DAC’s report and to review and reflect on the current state of the project last October (2021). The overwhelming view of the PCC was that the DAC raised some very valid points and that we needed to consider them carefully. The main outcome of that discussion was that the PCC asked me (Peter Preston) to act as the Interim Project Manager for our building project and to form a sub-committee to consider the way or ways forward for our buildings both here at Warwick Road and at Prescott Avenue.

That subcommittee is known as the ‘Next Steps Team’ and is composed of myself, Beth McGregor, Steve Short, Tor Moir, Mike Clark, Sarah Preston and Jonathan Patterson. As a group we have said to the PCC (and now to you also), that this team is not the new Space Project Team. We have come together for a short period, for a specific reason – to consider the practicalities of a number of issues, and more importantly to discern the Lord’s will for the future of our buildings. When the PCC have agreed the way forward, volunteers will be needed to form a new Space Project Team to take the project forward and consider all the detailed questions such as what colours to paint the walls etc. Perhaps that could be you? Please can I encourage you to start praying and seeking if God is calling you to serve in this way.

So what has happened since October? Well, we’ve been looking at a number of key areas, considering practical aspects and praying hard for the Lord to guide us. The following is a summary of some of the key points:

1. Project Finances
The fundraising target for the original project was originally set at £2.4 million. As mentioned earlier, we have so far raised in the region of £1.25 million, which we praise God for.
However, at the end of October last year, our Quantity Surveyors were asked to update the value of the project and provide an estimate of what the total cost would be by 2025, which is a realistic timeframe for bringing the project to site from where we are. They estimated that by 2025 the total cost of the project would rise from the original £2.4 million to between £3.1 million to £3.2 million, though this estimate was carried out before the current inflationary pressures, we are all aware of, came to the fore.
At the present time, the annual giving to the space project is in the region of £9,000 to £12,000 per year. This means our current level of giving/ fundraising is not keeping up with inflation and therefore the value of the money we have already raised is decreasing in real terms.
Sarah Preston, in her role as grant funding officer in 2019, researched a number of potential grant funding bodies who might be willing to make grants towards the project. The likely levels of additional funding from this route are in the region of £60,000 to £250,000 max, with a realistic outcome likely to be in the region of £150,000. Whilst this would be a fantastic outcome, it is clearly a long way from meeting the funding gap that is growing in our project.  

Whilst we continue to pray for miraculous provision from our heavenly Father, the basic financial position of the project, as it stands today, means that it seems increasingly likely that it will not be possible for the Space Project to go ahead, in its current form.

2. Temporary Hall Provision
Given this situation, we have researched the possibility of replacing the hall with a temporary provision, such as port-a-cabins etc. both of the container type and the flat pack type. Unfortunately, all of the companies that we approached to discuss this with concluded that it was impossible to install such structures on the Warwick Road site because of issues relating to access.

3. The Condition of Our Buildings
The hall at Warwick Road has reached the end of its serviceable life. Though the condition is not good, by God’s grace we have been able to continue to use it on a weekly basis.
Our Quinquennial Inspection, or five yearly check on the condition of the church building at Warwick Road was due in 2021. With the renewed push to move the Space Project on and after concerns were raised over the thoroughness of previous inspections, we commissioned a report from a new architect. This was indeed much more thorough and flagged up a number of issues that hadn’t been identified previously. Some of these are shown below. However, the main finding of the report, is that it identifies approximately £190,000 worth of repairs and maintenance work that needs to be carried out to the church building at Warwick Road over the next five years (separate to the hall). This figure excludes repairs and replacement of the heating and AV equipment (some of which has already taken place) and the cost of any additional repair work that may be found necessary after further investigations recommended in the report (such as asbestos testing, structural and drainage investigations and high level roof and masonry inspections) have taken place. 


In parallel with the Quinquennial Inspection of the church at Warwick Road, we also commissioned the first ever quinquennial inspection of the church centre at Prescott Avenue. This identified that £135,000 worth of repairs, maintenance and alteration works were necessary to the Church Centre over the next five years.
The PCC budgets for around £14,000 worth of repair maintenance work across both sites on an annual basis. However, as you already know, the church is currently running at an annual budgetary deficit of around £30,000, which means that finding the funding to cover this necessary work is extremely challenging.
In order to assist with this the PCC has taken the following actions. Over the years, the PCC has transferred surplus cash from the church’s general funds to the Space Project funds. Formally speaking this money is known as “designated funds” and it is within the power of the PCC to re-designate it for another purpose if they so wish. At the March 2022 PCC meeting, the PCC voted to re-designate these funds (around £50,000 to £60,000) to repairs and maintenance work at Prescott Avenue.
The situation at Warwick Road is a little more complex. The funds we have raised so far are know as “restricted funds”. This means that they can only be used for the purpose for which they were given. It is possible to change the purpose, if the original purpose is no longer viable, as increasingly seems to be the case in our situation. However, the new purpose has to be similar in scope to the original and would need permission from the Charity Commission. Having looked into the processes involved, it seems extremely unlikely that the Charity Commission would permit the restricted funds to be utilised on a different site (i.e. Prescott Avenue) and at the May 2022 PCC meeting the PCC voted not to engage lawyers (probably at considerable expense) to investigate the possibility further. To that end the £1.25 million we have currently raised for the space project is restricted to be used at the Warwick Road site. Since the original Space Project plans included the refurbishment of the main church building, a phased approach to development works on the Warwick Road site (beginning with the repair and refurbishment of the church building) seems like a sensible way forward at this stage and is something for which funding is already in place.
With the above in mind, the PCC have authorised the Churchwardens to commission the urgent repairs identified in both reports and to commission the various follow up investigations each report recommends. I met with the Wardens at the end of May to assist them with this and quotes have already been received for many of the items.

4. Church Architect
We ended up having to commission two separate architects to carry out our Quinquennial Inspections as the first did not have the time capacity to take on the inspection of Prescott Avenue as well. As a Church of England church, we are legally obliged to have a Church Architect, which is simply a person designated to carry out our inspections every five years and advise on repair and maintenance in the meantime. Given all of the above, the PCC were recommended to appoint just one architect to cover both sites so that they could advise us on the priorities across both sites. It was decided to invite the architect who had undertaken the inspection of Prescott Avenue to fulfil this role. Her name is Caroline Edwards and she works at Acanthus Clews architects in Banbury.
This is an important appointment for our church as Caroline will be responsible for leading many of the larger scale repair projects to both sites over the next five years, as well as some aspects of the refurbishment of the main church building. I am meeting her here on Wednesday morning this week to show her round the main church building and the hall, and after that she will decide if she wants to take on the role. Please pray specifically for this meeting.
I’m very conscious that much of this may have come as a bit of a shock this morning. I’m also conscious of how complex our current buildings situation feels right now – I very much feel that personally, even though dealing with such matters is my full time job. As I have reflected on the challenges before us, the words of one of the songs we sing here at St. Paul’s came to me as a prayer to pray:

I will trust my saviour Jesus, when my darkest doubts befall. Trust Him when to simply trust Him, seems the hardest thing of all. I will trust my saviour Jesus, trust Him when my strength is small, for I know the shield of Jesus, is the safest place of all. Jesus, only Jesus, help me trust You more and more. Jesus, only Jesus, May my heart be ever Yours.

Please pray for me, Beth, Steve, Tor, Mike Clark, Sarah and Jonathan as we seek to meet and discern the Lord’s will for the way forward with our buildings. Pray especially, that we would first delight in the person and presence of the risen Jesus in our lives and find joy in him. Pray that we would trust him when everything seems too hard, and when our hearts are filled with doubt. When we’re tired and our strength is weak. Pray that we would seek the shelter of his outstretched arms above every other option.

And finally, please pray that the Lord would continue to provide for all our needs here at St. Paul’s and please pray with and for each other that we would all trust our saviour Jesus.

To him be the Glory, forever and ever, Amen!