Reawakening, SDU and Urgent Works Update: October 2023
It is time to update everyone about our progress and I am very pleased to do so.
In mid-August, we submitted our application to the Lottery Board for the main project funding. The East Midlands committee will be considering the application on 29 November (having undertaken due diligence in the meantime) and we will hear the result shortly afterwards. A delegation from the lottery will be visiting us on 24 November for an inspection and a presentation from us.
We still have to raise more match funding and that work continues. If you know anyone who might be prepared to contribute, please let me know.
Applications have been made to the District Council for planning consent and to the Diocese for a Faculty. We have just heard from the diocese that no objections are being raised but that they will be imposing conditions (which we fully expected). The process now moves to the Petition itself and the public notice. We continue to liaise with the diocese closely, not least because we hope that it will assist us with a cashflow loan during the capital works phase.
We also continue to work closely with the District and Town Councils and continue to develop a helpful and constructive relationship with officers.
Finally, we were invited to apply for significant emergency funding from both Historic England and the Lottery Board to enable us to carry out urgent works to the north roof, high level masonry and rainwater goods. The Lottery part of the grant has now been confirmed and we are just waiting to hear from HE to confirm their offer in principle. Hopefully, this aspect of the work will start in the middle part of next year. Once this has happened and the Reawakening work completed (subject to funding), we hope that the building will be removed from the Heritage at Risk Register.
As ever, I am always willing to answer queries.
Andrew Fearn, Church Warden
Update 16.5.2023
I am very pleased to submit this report on our progress with these two intertwined projects.
The Project Board (which includes all our professional team together with Chris Lion, Andrew Fearn, Pat Mercer, James Howlett, David Godfrey and Anne Coyne) continues to meet monthly, either virtually or on site. Project Board minutes are full and self-explanatory and are circulated to the PCC. There is also a quarterly meeting with the National Lottery Heritage Fund representatives and the PCC has received a copy of the latest Progress Report submitted to the Fund. In addition to these meetings, full updates are given to every meeting of the Standing Committee and PCC as well as periodic updates in Bitesize News and on the website.
i am pleased to say that there appears to be general support for the principle of the repairs and internal re-ordering.
We are coming to the end of the development phase which has enabled us to work up the project, cost it and start the process of obtaining a range of formal consents. We have also been busy fund-raising; more of that below. We had hoped to be in a position to make our application for the main funding to the Lottery in May 2023 but discussions about some of the detail with Historic England, the Diocesan Advisory Committee and others have resulted in this being pushed back to August. The Lottery is aware and fine with this, but it does potentially cause some funding issues as the SDU work (ie platform extension, Thomas Magnus room, AV equipment and new chairs) has to be done by the end of 2024. This represents a tight time schedule but everyone is aware and planning accordingly. Happily, we successfully passed our Mid -Stage Review with the Lottery and have been invited to continue to the next stage, ie the application. We have always had to raise approximately £300k as match funding. Applications to trusts and charities have raised in excess of £160k and we have raised over £60k through an Appeal launch and subsequent work with members of the congregation. This work goes on.
Work on our Activity Plan has continued apace and this is a crucial element of the Lottery requirements. We have to reach out to the wider community and this has been happening in a number of ways. Our storytellers have been working in the schools as well as with girls from the Traveller community and Ukrainian refugees. They tell stories from the history of the church making them fun and inter-reactive. The two primary schools involved are those with the highest incidence of free school meals.
We have continued to work with our Interpretation consultants who have been designing display panels for the various ‘attractions’ around the church and I am very grateful to those in the congregation whom I have asked to draft text. It has been an interesting exercise which has enabled a number of us to apply talents to this work. The consultants are also in the process of re-designing our logo so that it can be incorporated in the display panels and used in our parish publicity.
The design team has been hard at work and striving to give us what we want as well as pleasing other interested parties. Inflationary cost pressures have caused some ‘value engineering’ and we have had to accept that we cannot have everything which we had originally wanted. This has been a constant tension in the work. It is our bad luck that we have hit upon this exceptional period of high inflation and increasing interest rates. Most recently, we have had to agree to the new Thomas Magnus Room and new cafe being swapped over so that the cafe will be where the baptistry is now and the Thomas Magnus room where the cafe currently is situated. This was principally at the behest of Historic England whose view is extremely influential. However, we will hopefully end up with the same accommodation but not necessarily where we had originally intended. We have always been aware that compromises were inevitable.
Throughout the year we have also been building key alliances. Nottingham University sent six students to compile a Social Media strategy and they have produced a film of their work. As a result, one of the students may be offered a heritage-based internship during the summer vacation. Newark Civic Trust have also been engaged and a group are visiting this summer to ascend the tower and inspect the south roof. Probably the most important aspect of our liaisons has been with the District Council. We are represented on the Newark Town’s Fund Board and the Cultural Heart of Newark Board. Senior officers from NSDC have attended meetings arranged by Alix Slater so that there is full awareness of our project. Some of them are visiting the church shortly to undertake a roof top inspection and see for themselves what is intended. Our lighting consultants have also been engaged by NSDC to improve external lighting round the church in order to discourage ASB. The consultants will be making a presentation to NSDC and ourselves shortly after this report is written. We are also actively talking to senior officers to investigate whether NSDC can offer financial support to one or more aspects of Reawakening. Prior to our project we had very limited lines of communication with NSDC; that has changed completely and some strong connections have been forged. The Lottery will be supporting the Castle renovations and they have been explicit in encouraging us to work in a collaborative way.
Outside the scope of the Reawakening project, we have been aware that repairs to the north roof and masonry issues on that side will be a problem in the short to medium term. Currently, Historic England and NLHF are discussing whether, jointly, they can make available emergency funding in the order of £300k to enable this work to be done. The objective is to remove the church from the Heritage at Risk Register (it was registered at our behest 3 or 4 years ago and is now potentially working in our favour!). If this funding becomes reality, it is likely that the work will be done later this year in advance of the main project work. Inevitably, this report is only a summary of the activity but, as ever, I am very happy to answer any questions
Andrew Fearn
16 May 2023