St. Margaret’s Church has now submitted a planning application to R&B Council for a radically revised junior church building, located in the church graveyard. The building is similar to the proposals presented by the church at a public meeting on 29 April 2009.
Following the refusal of the original ‘barn’ style building by R&B Councillors, the Church are proposing a completely different style of building with a much lower visual profile.
The building is primarily designed to provide minimum visual impact when viewed from the lych-gate end of the graveyard, and is partly buried beneath the line of falling ground adjacent to Church Lane. The roof will be mostly concealed by planting.
Light will enter the building on the east (Hooley) side, and to allow light penetration into interior spaces, a large area of continuous glazing, approximately 25m long and 3.5m high, is proposed. There are also two roof lights to admit light into interior rooms.
The proposed interior space is divided into a main hall area of approximately 100m˛, two classrooms, two lobbies, a kitchen and a WC block. The total interior area of approximately 230m˛ will provide the Church with a space almost four times that of the existing Porta-cabins.
Full details of this application are available on the R&B website (www.reigate-banstead.gov.uk) under ‘Planning application search’. The reference is 10/00144/F. Alternatively, details can be inspected at the Council offices at the Horseshoe Centre in Banstead.
It is most important that the R&B Planning Department obtain a measure of public opinion on this application. If you would like to express an opinion, the CRA urge you to write to the Planning Officer. You can fill in the form on the R&B website, or write to the Planning Officer at the R&B Council. All comments must be submitted by 2nd March 2010.
The CRA (in conjunction with the CVPS) will also be writing to the Planning Officer on behalf of Chipstead residents. The CRA Committee has discussed this application at some length, but there may be certain issues we are not aware of. Residents are therefore invited to also forward their comments to the CRA. Please reply to this email, or send an email to:
cra@chipsteadvillage.org.
Alternatively, please write to:
Barry Pepper, Gate House, How Lane, Chipstead, CR5 3LL.
All correspondence will, of course, be kept strictly confidential.
