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Father Kieron reports on new developments:
In recent weeks two important milestones have been passed in the evolution of our project to expand and improve St. Richard's Church. Firstly, the whole project now has the full approval of the Historic Churches Committee, which has the authority to speak for English Heritage on behalf of the Catholic Church, with regard to listed buildings. Secondly, it has now just been confirmed that St. Richard's has been listed as a grade two listed building in recognition of the unique collection of Gabriel Loire stained glass. Significantly, the listed status means that any repairs or alterations, which we engage in from now on, will be zero rated for V.A.T. This will enable us to make substantial savings to the budget for re-development.
We are now free to go ahead with the first stage of the proposed work - the re-modelling of the Blessed Sacrament Chapel and the Sanctuary. The estimated cost of this will be £60,500 at current prices. Fortunately we can meet this from funds we already have available, principally from the sale of Nutbourne Chapel. It is envisaged that work will commence in the summer of 2008 after our Golden Jubilee celebrations.
There will be extensive consultation in the Parish before any further work is commissioned, as the next phase will involve having to raise money! The second phase of the project will be to build on a narthex at the entrance to the church and to add on side aisles to the nave.
We hope to produce a model of these proposals with some possible alternative designs, to take into account comments,
which have already been received.
November 2007