Heritage Buildings and Community Development Officer HBCDO Andrew Mottram

Heritage Buildings & Community Development Officer Supported by a partnership of organisations –English Heritage –Countess of Beauchamp Trust –Dudley Community Partnership –Worcester Diocesan Board of Finance –Worcester Diocesan Board of Social Responsibility –Worcestershire Partnership (County Council)

HBCDO Role To help individual congregations, and in particular those responsible for churches identified as priorities for support, to understand, maintain and make best use of their buildings and land in and for their communities To help diocesan and local authority bodies take a strategic approach to the increased us and conservation of historic places of worship

HBCDO Role… Encourager Capacity Building of the people –Facts and data –Knowledge and skills –Preventative maintenance Creating community buildings Viable and sustainable

Andrew Mottram Ordained priest 1979 All Saints Hereford Ecclesiastical Property Solutions

All Saints Hereford City centre medieval building 200 – 300 visitors per week three ‘dangerous structure’ notices £1 million of repairs completed 1995 £700,000 refurbishment completed 1997 Re-opened July 1997 All Saints achieved year 5 turnover of £300,000 within 18 months visitors per week

Ecclesiastical Property Solutions Small Limited Company –2 directors –4 other part time ‘as and when’ staff England & Wales 500+ churches over 5 years Managing projects from £3.5 million down to £250

Small projects Majority for EPS to provide advice and direction Realities not fantasies –Finance –Management –Context Lack of preventative maintenance is the most common but unacknowledged problem with the church buildings

Plymouth St Peter Inner city church in downtown UPA £1.8 million repairs and restoration £1.4 million internal reordering to become a community building Theology drove the design £70,000 pa potential rental income from community use = 5% of capital investment

Some downsides to big schemes Post-project exhaustion Loss of the Church’s mission priorities Building too complex for volunteer management The demands of ‘Maintaining the Show’ and keeping up the standards Change of personnel can put a project at risk

Small is Beautiful Churches need help to identify what is possible, appropriate & sustainable ‘Where do we start?’ ‘How do we get the money?’ Responding to identified needs Doing a few things but doing them well Monitor, evaluate, refine