Open Door Project at St Barth olomew's
The Open Door Project began life in 2002 as the Wheelchair Fund. Disabled wheelchair access has always been poor, and a “halfway house” solution led to the purchase of ramps, which have to be assembled and dismantled for each service they are used. I doubt Health & Safety would permit the purchase of such ramps ten years on in 2012 without lifting tuition for those volunteers, whose ages always seem to be getting older!
The Wheelchair Fund therefore grew into the Open Door Project, with much fund raising over the years. We have spent money, chiefly on architects’ fees, but more recently on legal fees for our successful appeal to the Chester Diocesan Advisory Committee. The irony is that if we had not spent the £7,000 on these legal and associated fees then we believe we would be in an excellent position to move forward to the next stage, whereby Open Door could suddenly become a reality.
In 2011 our appeal for the 125th anniversary of the present church building brought in £4,575 including tax recovered under Gift Aid. A further £361 bank interest was earned from the cash reserves held in London. By January 2012 the Buildings Committee had looked at the way funding had been raised since 2002, and by applying this formula we believe we are in a good position to limit the amount of cash we need to raise in 2012.
We had been refused grant funding from more than one grant-making trust, due to the economic conditions prevailing. However, the Garfield Weston Foundation has indicated approval in principle, provided we can raise more than 50% of the total build cost.
In January 2012 a budget was prepared showing we need to raise £5,708. We already have £3,080 pledged to us during 2011. The total project cost of £195,500 (including costs already paid) is covered by £91,716 raised since 2002, plus the pledged funds and our shortfall stated above. We expect to be able to approach Garfield Weston Foundation for up to 49% of the build cost later this year.
A sponsored swim by Sally Lang and Sally Jackson has already taken place, but I do not have any detail of cash raised to date.
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