Our Vision is for a community enriched by Christian faith, values and worship. We subscribe to the notion of a society with high levels of personal, professional, civic and corporate responsibility; a society where people come together to solve problems and improve the quality of life for their communities and themselves; a society where the leading force for progress is social and personal responsibility, not state provision – ideals that have been encapsulated in the so called “Big Society.”
Within this context Holy Trinity Church has asked itself the question “How can we better use our assets and resources to serve our community more effectively?”
As a first stage in this process, Holy Trinity Church (HTC) is proposing, subject to the relevant planning consents, to build a new state-of-the-art Parish Community Centre as a major enhancement to the facilities for Cookham’s community and open up its use for more local activities and to more organisations.
It would also like to maximise the potential of its 2.5 acre “paddock” and its perimeter woodland for outdoor community activities, perhaps camping and nature trails, particularly for local schools and youth groups.
HTC wishes to facilitate others to use the new resource to introduce new community initiatives – examples might include tourist information facilities, a WiFi Internet café, and drop-in social meeting opportunities such as a coffee shop, computer facilities, indoor sports and other leisure activities. We welcome other suggestions from the community.
Its existing Parish Centre is currently used by about 18 different community organisations involving around 200 people for about 50 hours per week. 80% of its usage is daytime and 20% evenings. 80% of its users are non-Church related.
The new Parish Community Centre would be a purpose-designed building, slightly larger, more environmentally friendly and with more flexible space. Its position would be relatively distant and secluded from its surrounding neighbours (if the paddock option is chosen).
The new Parish Community Centre would be part of a wider scheme that would see the internal conversion of its existing Parish Centre, subject to the necessary planning and listed building consents, into 4 apartments, 3 of which would be sold and 1 retained for rental purposes. This is a net increase of 1 extra dwelling as the current Parish Centre contains 3 flats on its first floor.
The proposed new, purpose-designed Parish Community Centre would be built elsewhere in the Church grounds. Two alternative sites have been evaluated in great depth:-
It is the firm recommendation of the Church Council that the paddock option be chosen as it comprehensively fulfils all its key requirements.
The financial resources that would be released from the conversion and sale of 3 apartments, would be between £1.2m – £1.4m and this would enable HTC to:-
The overall aim is for HTC to continue to contribute to the building of a strong local Cookham community based on its Christian principles and values.
Holy Trinity C of E primary school’s existing classroom portfolio is below the Government’s minimum classroom size guidelines and pupils would benefit from the addition of an extra large classroom. Its estimated cost is £250k and the Church would hope to contribute a minimum of £75k to its fund raising. The current financial climate precludes this classroom being funded by RBWM.
Click here to download a copy of the survey form
Click here to download a copy of the proposed building plans for the new parish community centre