Our plans for Church Gate are continuing to move forward. In case anyone is unsure, Church Gate is the three storey office block next door to our current site. We’ve bought it and are in process of redeveloping it for use as a Social Action Hub with a Community Grocery on the ground floor, and also to serve our Children’s and Youth work each week too.
This week an inspection of the roof was carried out, so I took the opportunity to take a closer look myself – courtesy of the cherry picker. Well… why not?
For clarity, I don’t know much about roofing but I enjoyed the ride despite an innate fear of heights. I also took note of how much higher the cherry picker at the Hilton Hotel behind me was – I don’t think that’s a job for me!
Progress Update
In terms of a progress update, things continue to move forward on track:
- Various building surveys have been carried out (such as the one on the roof)
- Some grant applications have been submitted. Benefact Trust came back very quickly with a grant of £80,000, and we are now waiting to hear back from some others, including our biggest application which is to Your Fund Surrey
- The floor layouts have been finalised
- The architects drawings are in
- Planning Permission for a new entrance has been submitted, and we expect to hear back during April (we are not expecting this to be a problem)
- A thorough refurbishment of the lift has been commissioned
- Various other quotes are coming in
- The main part of the project is going out to tender next week, with quotes expected during April, and building work expected to begin over the summer for completion during the autumn
- The Grocery team are in process of finalising an agreement with The Message Trust who we will be working with for the grocery
- Outstanding Gift Day pledges continue to be fulfilled, alongside a few extra gifts too – so a big thank you for that. By the way, it’s still not too late to give to this amazing project!
In summary, things are moving ahead well and I’m looking forward to seeing the hoardings go up and the building work begin.
Prayer requests
Please be praying about this project as it goes ahead. Here are some specific prayer requests:
- For a simple ‘YES’ to our planning application. As I said above, we’re not expecting any issues, but let’s not be complacent
- For the release of significant grant funding, especially from Your Fund Surrey
- For good quotes for the work to be done, with prices we are happy to pay
- For wisdom as we pick the best main contractor to work with
- For a great relationship to be formed with The Message Trust
- For the whole Grocery Team – especially Helen who will be leading a lot of this through in the months ahead
- For God to release all the finance we need to do this well
- For no unexpected surprises – talking of which…
What about the state of the roof?
We knew there were a couple of leaks from the roof when we bought the building, and this week was the moment the situation was assessed properly. The outcome was not as positive as our best hopes, but nowhere near as bad as it could have been either.
In summary, repairs are needed to the flashing around the gutters, and some of the metal panels you can see from below need to be replaced or overlaid too. It’s a bit more work than we’d hoped for, but not outside our range of expectations, and with what we’d seen inside it could have been a whole lot worse.
We can’t call this an unexpected surprise, since we knew this was a real possibility from the start, but please be praying that there are no unexpected extras across the rest of the project as the work goes forward.
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