Planning permission has now been received for the application made on behalf of Castlefields Church for a replacement church building on their existing site in Derby City Centre.
Castlefields are an independent evangelical church with a thriving congregation who have outgrown their current modestly sized single storey building and so approached CGT to review the feasibility of developing their existing site to provide a new building that could meet the current needs of the church and all of its community outreach work, building in scope also for future growth.
Over the course of a few months CGT developed some feasibility design options working alongside the church members, including undertaking visual presentations of design proposals to the church members, before settling upon an agreed design proposal which could be submitted to the Local Planning Authority for Pre-Application submission.
The outcome of the Pre-Application submission was broadly supportive, and with a few minor changes the design proposal would then be ready to be submitted for a Full Planning application. After holding a church meeting to discuss, where the design proposal was re-presented to the members, it was decided to lodge a Full Planning submission to the Local Authority.
Over two floors the design includes a Worship Hall that can seat up to 200 people, a kitchen and servery, three generous meeting rooms with kitchenettes and fully accessible WC provisions on each floor. The proposed building uses modern methods of construction with large expanses of curtain wall glazing to the principal elevation, which is in keeping with the urban context of the surrounding buildings which have developed around the existing church building in recent times.
Now that Planning permission has been received the church alongside CGT are currently considering their next steps forward in this exciting journey, and are thoughts and prayers are with the church that the future holds great things for their ongoing vital witness in the centre of the city.
