Our old church hall was built over 80 years old, and had become increasingly hard to keep it in good condition – hardly surprisingly, as it was only ever designed to be a temporary building.
We have been keen to continue to have this kind of provision at the heart of the Westlands – as a church and community hub, providing both for church activities and outreach, and for wider community use.

For several years we had been pursuing a plan to replace our existing hall with an extension to the church. However despite getting a long way down the road with that scheme, a huge escalation in building costs in 2022 made it unaffordable. Since then we have therefore been working with a local builder on a different kind of proposal – to replace our existing hall with a similar-sized standalone building in the same location.

Very generous giving, helped by a few external grants, has meant that we have sight almost all of the anticipated £626,000 cost. The November 2023 appeal leaflet, giving more details about this exciting proposal, is downloadable here. You can also respond via our justgiving page

Since then, we have learned that our planning application has been succesful; and though one of the conditions has delayed things by a few months, we are now hopeful that we might be able to start work on site in Semptember, with the new hall due becoming available to be used in mid-2025.

We also appreciate people’s prayers for our project