As many of you will have noticed, the ground works are seriously underway at Christ Church at the moment. The large trenches that have been cut are to provide an independent 3 phase electrical power supply to the new centre. This will prevent the problems we get now with insufficient electrical loading between the church’s electrics and the centres. The under floor heating is being installed  next week, as are the doors and windows so at last the building will be properly secure. Our solar panels have been installed and will be ready to start delivering 20kw of electricity once connected (and when the sun shines!)

Do take care around the church paths as they are unavoidably muddy and, for the next few weeks, will continue to be rather uneven in places.

We are still looking for volunteers to help to run the many different aspects of the centre so if you have a little spare time and energy please contact our development manager Christ Smith and introduce yourself – his number is 07582 305760 or email him on chris.smith@ccccswindon.co.uk

We are still on target to finish the building by the end of October.

You can see the full picture gallery of our building project here.

As some of you may have seen, we are once again in the local paper – you can read the article here.

As some of you may have seen, we are once again in the local paper –

Present :  Stephen Grosvenor, Mike Palmer, Reg Hardwick, John Plaister,Lynda Fisher  – Aplogies: Kevin Penfold, Daniel Pitt, Mark Antell,

Item 1. SG said a short prayer.

Lynda explained that she was attending meetings of each of the church committee groups offering support and checking that everything was working as envisioned.

 Item 2. Minutes of last meeting – reviewed –

All outstanding items have been included in the agenda.

Item 3. –Budget Summary  – see cumulative spend at the end of these minutes. Still well within this year’s allocation. There are some issues relating to expenditure under the CC project that may for accounting purposes be better expressed in general building costs. SG to discuss with Ian on his return from holiday.

Item 4. – Christ Church

 a)   West porch Project. AFK has produced a design and plans and elevations suitable for submission to the DAC for licencing purposes. We have however deferred doing this as we hope to include the new AV console position in the application. Bernard is working on a design and AFK will incorporate it for us into the Plans. We are aiming to submit an application by the October DAC meeting with a view to proceeding in Spring 2014 subject to final agreement from the PCC.

b)   Action SG to discuss Roof material and light in the porch with AFK.

b) LED Lighting – The new lighting fitments are nearly ready and we hope to start the trial in the Lady Chapel in by the end of September. We will aim to get reactions from people throughout the winter months and review the position in Spring.

 c) AV update – We will need to re-position the AV control console once the new porch is built. Although Bernard and Mike have done a number of new microphone installations themselves and saved a significant amount of money, we are still some way off agreeing a final specification for the AV – with particular regard to video, projection capabilities and screens. Also a possible upgrade for the organ and choir recording capabilities has yet to be agreed. JP has identified an innovative possible screen made of special glass which may obviate the need for expensive and potentially intrusive control mechanisms for the screen. ACTION: SG to investigate prices and technology further.

d). Damaged South transept window/Repointing. Dan Pitt has contacted AFK for advice and has the names of some masons to approach for quotes. Our advice is that the repair should be done in the next 18 months or so. The Friends have already offered to help to offset some of the costs for this project JP has also identified an area on the north transept wall which needs re-pointing/repair. We have a reasonable quote from Rob Flemming for this work. We will aim to get a further quote with a view to carrying out the job prior to winter.

f) Asbestos removal from old boiler room. This action is carried forward. We have already had an estimate and this work should now be done once the CC contractors have cleared the site. ACTION MP to find quote and confirm costs – proposal is to proceed to get the works completed so we can continue to safely use the storage.

Item 5. St Mary’s Church – This action carried forward again- the paintwork in St Mary’s is in a poor state of repair. We will add it to the work in progress list and review options for getting it done. ACTION MP to see if Community Service Volunteers would do it.

 Item 6 Community Centre update

a)   The building completion date is still on target for the end of October. There has been a robbery of copper piping from the site and the contractor has taken steps to protect the site until next week when it will be securable. Internal boarding is complete; Solar panels have been installed on the roof. We have agreed the kitchen design and will be placing an equipment order in the next few days. The Friends of Christ Church have kindly donated £4k towards it. Doors and windows will be installed next week. The underfloor heating will be installed shortly afterwards.

b)   Cost updates –as a result of the building regulation inspection, we have now received a quote for the improvement of the roadways and paths around the west of the church. We are required, for fire access, to widen and improve some of our pathways. This cost has exceeded our initial estimates by a significant amount and as a result we are looking for savings in the cost scheme to offset this overspend as far as possible. On the positive side, we are hoping to receive significantly more than budgeted from the sale of the Parish office so this will further help to mitigate the costs.

 c)    Rubbish arrangments – The contract with Biffa seems to be working ok and the rubbish from the burial ground is under control at the moment. We will need to continue to review the situation once the centre is operational.

 d)   Paths & Lighting – we have received an innovative proposal from Binary electronics for path lighting in and around the Community centre. This will use LED low wattage bollard lights which will be controllable and highly cost effective to operate.

 e)   Garden of Reflection – we have asked the winner of the garden design to extend her design to incorporate the area to the north which was previously intended to be used as storage. We are receiving invaluable help and advice from Ian Handy re the garden itself. ACTION – MP to follow up with Ian.

 f)    Area outside the East end of the centre. – we still don’t have a design for this space but intend to produce one in the next couple of weeks. We have agreed with the building contractor that levels can be established whilst he is preparing the ground for the paths etc ACTION – SG & DP to measure up and produce an outline plan for the garden

Item 7 Property Checks –

As a  result of Annual Property check carried out on 32. Points a & b are outstanding

a)   Work Outstanding – Re-plastering required following difficulties with damp and mould in the dining room. ACTION MP to recommend some plasterers to occupant so that she can arrange for them to visit and quote.

b)   Work outstanding  – PV Front doorshould be replaced as it doesn’t fit properly and is very drafty Karen has had details of plasterers but hasn’t acted on them yet

Item 8 Any other business

Next Meeting: 6^th November 7.30 – Community Centre@Christ Church room to be confirmed.

 Deferred Jobs list

A- Assessed as high risk

B- Legal requirement

C- Best Practice.

D – Nice to do.

Cost Schedule 201

Although we have made some dramatic progress with the build over the past 3-4 weeks, we have just had an update from the Timberworks Project team  that puts the completion date back to the end of October.

This news is rather disappointing but cannot be helped. It  is largely due to the very difficult nature of our site – between 2 conservation listed walls and in the middle of a burial ground. In normal circumstances the wall panels are pre-constructed in the factory and thus the build can be very quick. We have provided some especially challenging conditions for the team and they have been forced to re-evaluate their timetable. They will, of course, do all they can to recover some time if possible.

Expect to see a roof appearing in the next 2-3 weeks and do keep an eye on our photo gallery of the build progress here.