The Building Project - next steps

This week we’ve asked Kerith’s Operations Director Calum Field to bring us an update on the next steps of our building project.

Wasn’t it fantastic, last Sunday, to celebrate the £127,000 that we raised in our latest building gift days. I had shared during the gift days that my prayer was that we maximised the £50,000 matching funding that we had be offered. So, to see us maximising and then going well beyond is just incredible. Thank you to everyone that gave.

Now that we have a healthy amount of money in the fund, naturally, the next thought is, what’s next? Hopefully, I can explain that for you.

Planning application

We need to submit a planning application to the local authority for approval of the changes we are looking to make. Although we are not making any alternations to the size of the building (except an additional fire escape) we are looking to change the roof, windows and cladding of the building, all of which will need their sign off. The exciting part is that it’s a chance for us to make our first decisions on what materials and colour we want on the outside of the building. There are other aspects to this application too, such as demonstrating that our changes are of benefit to the community and a good use of the building. We would hope to hear back about this application before the Spring of 2025.

Sustainability and building services

We only spoke briefly about sustainability during the vision nights for the building. We explained that it was really important to us to create a building which is going to have a positive environmental impact not just now but also for years to come. We are really focused at the moment in mapping out how that might look. As anyone who has looked into green solutions for their own home, they often come with a large initial cost, for example with electric cars or solar panels. But, these solutions also sometimes come with financial opportunities, through grant bodies. A priority is to development some energy targets we want to achieve with the building and start exploring how we go for them.

Then, very much linked to sustainability, we are doing further work in how we heat, ventilate and power the building. We are having discussions with industry experts over the next few weeks, to help map this out for us. It wont be long until we can take our coats off in the auditorium in winter - AMEN!

Tender process

Once all the above is complete, we can start looking at putting the work out to tender. This is a detailed document that’s drawn up by our architect, with all the specifications of the work involved. Companies can then quote based on that information and we can look to choose our preferred contractor. Its unlikely we will start this until we are closer to our Phase 1 fundraising target of £950k. Which leads me nicely onto...

Fundraising

Although we started this blog celebrating the money we raised across September and October, we also need to keep the momentum up and recognise we still have some way to go. You’ll hear more details about this in a future blog in the coming weeks, so look out for that. We know this community really dug deep financially to raise the £127k, which is why we will be increasing our efforts to secure funding from outside our immediate community. We will be looking towards both local and national businesses and grant bodies for support. If you have any experience in this area, we’d love to hear from you. Please email farnborough.building@kerith.church.

Exciting isn’t it? We will try and keep you update with any progress, big or small, via the blog, on a Sunday and also the big purple wall at the back of the auditorium!