Christ Church Aughton
Proposed Church Hall
Our
church’s ministry has been hindered by not having a church hall. The Old School Building, which the Church
Council acquired eight years ago, has been an invaluable resource for many
church groups and activities for all age groups – but it cannot provide a hall
for all church activities which are many and varied.
Our
initial plans for a parish centre were rejected in 2006 by the WLDC Planning
Committee and on appeal, by the planning
inspector. The proposed building was
considered too big with insufficient parking.
So this led to a major re-think on how to develop the Old School
Building site.
Accordingly
the Church Council commissioned a new architect, Paul Baines, of PAB Architects
of Leigh, to design a church hall to replace the existing Old School Building,
to continue its existing ministries.
The
group responsible for liaising with Paul has also been appointed by the
PCC. Chaired by Ross, our vicar, it
comprises Rikki Abernethy, Pete Chalk, Jonathan Edwards, Josh Johnston, Dave Price, Ken Park, Cliff
Roughley and John Shaw.
Guided
by the planning inspector’s conclusions the architect has designed a building
two-thirds the size with more than twice the amount of parking in the
previously submitted building.
In
October 2007 the Church Council have accepted these plans as a basis for
consultation with church members, parishioners and the wider community. The
following month we held three open
consultations for local residents to view the plans for the new building and to
give feedback to members of our architect’s liaison group.
Some
180 attended and feedback showed overwhelming support for the new building. 153
questionnaires were returned with 135 people giving positive responses, while 18 were neutral. Many offered
suggestions which have been forwarded to the architect.
These
responses were included in our application for planning made in April,
2008.