PROJECT Gateway blog - January 2025
First spade in the ground…
January 2025 has been an exciting month! We have selected our building contractor and will spend the next few weeks negotiating the detailed contract agreement, whilst lead in work takes place.
And work has started!! A small section of groundwork has been dug for Youth and Community Centre marking the official commencement of the building work. Read more below…
Breaking ground…
Our first strip of footings has been dug out and filled at the back of church, officially commencing our building work on the Gateway project. This has fulfilled our planning permission!
What’s happening now?
We are working with contractor on the final cost and scope of the project, ahead of handing over the keys late March 2025. Work will continue on the design and costs, surveys and reports will be done, plus any necessary admin in advance of the project start.
Timeline
This is our expected schedule going forward:
The bookshop and café will have their final trading day on 1st March 2025, aiming to reopen September 2025.
Conference Room hire will close on 14th March 2025 aiming to reopen December 2025.
Our last Sunday in church will be on Sunday 16th March 2025, aiming to be back in for Christmas 2025.
The Youth and Community Centre will open in Summer 2026.
For more info on where we’ll be while our building is closed, such as where and when Sunday Services will take place, please visit our website from next month.
CAN YOU HELP?
We’ll need LOTS of help over the next few months. We’ll share more in the coming weeks but broadly we’ll help with:
CHURCH PACK UP & STORING STUFF - Most of the church equipment will need to be moved out and stored. We are putting together a plan of where everything can go. We have access to a storage unit, but aim to keep costs low, so if you have any space in a loft, garage or spare room to store items, please get in touch.
Can you help us in early March with:
packing boxes,
lifting and shifting boxes to the storage unit,
driving a van / car to the storage unit.
OFFSITE SUNDAY SERVICES - We’ll need lots of help when we begin off-site Sunday Services. Let us know if you can help with the following:
lifting and shifting for set up and pack down,
sound and AV support (on desks or as “roadies” each Sunday),
children/youth, including chaperoning (this requires a DBS),
stewarding and welcoming.
Find out more
If you want more information about the project, or to find out how you can support it financially, take a look at our Gateway pages on ChristChurch’s website, or you can chat to any of the members of the team: Adrian Beavis (Vicar), Steve Roberts (Project Leader), Walter Coxon (Finance), Mike Pearce (Technical), Peter Wichmann (CCW building knowledge and expertise), Rachael Purvis (Project Coordinator). If you’d like to email us with a specific query you can do so at this email address: gateway@ccwoking.org.