Q. Why are we doing all this? Can’t things just stay as they are?

A. Our vision is that Christ Church, its community centre and the grounds welcome growing numbers of people throughout the week. The renewal work that we undertake will be guided by an overall strategy of creating sustainable, energy efficient, environmentally responsible buildings that will be more cost effective to run. In the church, we will preserve and restore the original features of the building and enhance its capabilities to deliver excellent sound, lighting and visual experiences to both church goers and other visitors. It will provide a warm and adaptable space for worship, exhibitions, meetings and concerts but always retain its original role and character as a place of peace and reflection. We believe that we have a responsibility to preserve it; not simply as a monument, but as a working, vibrant, educational and useful place – at the centre of the community.

At the same time, we are replacing and extending our current leisure centre to provide more flexible, cost effective and improved facilities to the local community. Our new community centre will put excellent meeting, leisure and refreshment amenities into the heart of Old Town. Like the thousands of people who raised the £8,500 it took to build the original Christ church 160 years ago, we would love you to support us to attain this vision of growth and development – so that we, like them, can keep Christ Church and its work, at the heart of Swindon.

 In the Church

Q. Are the pews going to go?

A. As part of the interior works to the church itself, we intend to level the floor and install under-floor heating supplemented by new, energy efficient conventional wall mounted radiators. This means that we will need to replace our existing, platform mounted pews with new free-standing pews in the centre of the church. The remaining pews in the side aisles will be replaced by our existing chairs. We are currently looking to retain the existing historic pews and will search for ways to make them more comfortable and secure.

Q. What are the plans for the Lady chapel?

A. We intend to leave the Lady Chapel as it is.

Q. Our existing lighting is not very energy efficient or particularly effective – are we planning to do something about them?

A. We are looking into new lighting schemes for the church and are interested in LED lights as a very energy efficient and cost effective solution. We will be seeking quotations during 2013 for lighting solutions that will enhance the ambience of the church, cost less to run and maintain and provide more effective lighting.

Q.What surface will the new flat floor have?

 A. We anticipate creating a stone or tiled hard floor. This will improve the thermal efficiency of the under floor heating as well as the acoustics in the church.

Q. One of the reasons the church is so cold in winter is that there are drafts from the doors at the South & West end. What are you doing to improve that problem?

A. We originally investigated a large glass screen at the rear of the church but have now discounted this for cost reasons. Our current plan is to reinstate the interior porches to provide a draft screen for both South & West doors. We will be seeking designs and quotations for this work in early 2103.

Q. Will the Chancel and choir stalls remain as they are?

A. We have no plans to change the choir stalls or chancel area.

Q. This project has been going on for a long time. When will it be all done?

A. We have consulted and researched carefully as this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Our current timeline is for the new community hall to be completed in mid 2013 and provided that our fund raising and grant applications progress well, we would hope to start work on the church interior during 2014.

Q. Why aren’t we repairing the roof first?

A. We have received estimates of over half a million pounds to renovate the whole roof and have so far, been unsuccessful in getting grant assistance on the grounds that it is not bad enough. We felt that hard earned funds would be better deployed in the short term to deliver a warmer, more comfortable, efficient and better equipped church. In the meantime we are making annual accruals for on-going roof repair and patching in our buildings budget to ensure that the building remains dry.

Q. Who makes all these decisions?

A. The P.C.C. authorised a group of church members to create a Buildings and Site Development Group. This group has continued to develop the excellent work of the Development and Renewal group and has consulted widely and conducted a full review of our current situation and made recommendations as to how we can create and develop a sustainable presence in Swindon for the next 160 years. These plans have been presented to the PCC for agreement and approval. They also manage the day to day maintenance and management of all the parish’s properties.

Q. How is the fund raising organised?

A. It is important that we keep clear records on giving to comply with legislation and to maximise our income from gift aid. To ensure that all gifts made to Christ Church are properly accounted for, we make it clear in all Development & renewal fund raising activities that sums raised will go to the D&R fund which is administered separately from our day to day giving. If you wish to give to the D&R fund then please make it clear when you make your gift that it for this purpose, if you do not then we will assume that your gift is for the everyday running of the church and its mission unless otherwise stated. We also actively seek grant funding from relevent trusts and foundations. We always need help in this task. If you have some spare time and would like to help us then please contact the parish office – parishoffice@christchurchswindon.co.uk

 In the Community Hall

Q. Will people come to a community centre if it is connected with a church?

A. We will simply continue the tradition and practices of the past 50 years during which time we have successfully offered our local community full access to our Leisure centre. We already welcome a wide range of local groups and organisations and the plans to extend and develop the facilities that we can offer will mean that we can cater for a wider range of activities as well as providing a more flexible, attractive and contemporary space right in the heart of Old Town.

We intend to create a modern, cost effective community hall in place of our old Leisure centre which will be owned and managed by the church community for the benefit of all. We consider this to be part of our duty as Christians to provide hospitality and a welcome to all regardless of race or creed.

 Q. How much will the hall cost?

A. The current plans are estimated at around £650,000. A large proportion of this will be met from the funds from the sale of the old church hall in Devizes Road. We also intend to integrate the parish office into the new hall which will enable us to sell the existing building. We have secured a contribution of £230,000 from the Borough Council as well as community grants of £50,778 from the Landfill Communities Trust and £5,000 from Garfield Weston Foundation. We now are in a position to start building in early 2013.

Q. Won’t the council want to control how we run the hall?

A. The council will be contributing a substantial sum towards the total required and as such will require us to comply with all planning and  legislative obligations but we would have done this anyway. Ours is the major investment and we will be in full control of the operation and management of the hall. We intend to do this as laid out in our constitution and church plan for the benefit of the wider community.

Q. What will be different in the new hall?

A. We have researched the local hire market and thought about what sort of things we as a Christian community would like to be able to offer our friends in Old Town. Overall we will have a larger building – as a modern structure it will comply with all energy efficiency regulations and, as such, it will be much more cost effective to run than our current hall. In the designs we are exploring, we are looking for greater flexibility in the use of the space available. Broadly we intend to have a large hall to accommodate up to 150 seated, a modern kitchen capable of servicing this number, meeting rooms /office areas and a self-contained public area which we hope will serve those visiting the burial ground or the church itself.

Thousands of people visit the church and burial ground each year and we hope to be able to provide them with a welcome, a friendly face and modern facilities. The flexibility of the new hall will enable us to offer more cost effective rates for smaller groups as well as provide more competitive and modern facilities to larger ones.

Q. What will happen to users when the building work starts

A. We anticipate that, on our current timetable, building work will start in Spring 2013. We have deliberately chosen a modular building style which means that build time will be much quicker than a conventional build. We have been advised that the hall will be out of action for 10-12 weeks. During this time, where appropriate and practical, we will invite users to use the church itself. We will also explore with our fellow partnership churches the use of their facilities. It is important to us that all of our faithful customers are looked after and that they can come back to a new, revitalised and usable hall when work is completed.

Q. Why do we need to spend all this on a new hall when we could use it towards the work in the church itself?

A. We had a surveyors report on the hall last year which identified that it would cost nearly £100,000 to complete the repairs necessary and this would only extend the building’s life by a relatively short period. At the same time, we had an opportunity to bid for the Borough’s Social fund (Section 106 grant). We believe that the solution to the preservation of the church lies in reaching out to our local community to encourage them to find out more about us, discover the value of our (largely hidden) work in the local area and by doing so, come to recognize the contribution that Christ Church makes to Old Town and Swindon.

We believe that a new modern hall at the heart of Old Town will create more opportunity for us to connect with our community by enabling us to better engage with visitors, local charities, organisations and families through the new hall.

Q. Will we be able to afford to run the new hall?

A. The current hall is poorly insulated and expensive to run. Our plan is to build the new hall to the latest insulation and energy efficient standards. It will have solar panels to provide free electricity and a ground source heat pump for heating. It will be designed as a highly sustainable and low maintenance building. Even though the new hall will be larger, we expect it to be cost effective to run and this, coupled with the new flexibility of space, will ensure that we are able to remain within budget in the longer term. We have been given a church commissioners grant towards the cost of employing a Community Development manager to run our halls and to actively market the facilities and seek better links with our local community.

Q. Some of the plans seem to have new paths crossing the current burial grounds – what will happen to the monuments that are currently there?

A. It is important for us to improve access to the new hall. There will be 3 access points; One at each end of the new building and a main entrance opposite our South transept door. The current slope presents difficulties for some, so we are examining ways to access the new building by minimising the slope of the paths. This may involve moving a small number of monuments. We have documented and photographed all the potentially affected stone in the area to the South of the church and have been making efforts to contact the families of those buried here. We have now made an application to the Diocesan Advisory Board to make the changes and this is currently under consideration.

We have more information and plans of the proposed works here. There is no intention to disturb any of the graves in this area – all works will affect only the surface.

If you would like to know more or help us with our church or community renewal plans then please contact the Parish office 01793 522832 or parishoffice@christchurchswindon.co.uk or see our website for more information. www.christhcurchswindon.co.uk