Extension proposed at St Denis’ Church, Morton, to help serve needs of community with toilet and kitchenette
Plans have been submitted to install a toilet and kitchenette at a church — to ensure it meets the needs of the community.
The application, for grade two listed St Denis’ Church, Morton, would see a single storey extension added to the place of worship, to accommodate a community room and open up space for a toilet and tea bar.
Churchwarden Roger Blaney said: “The church is an asset for the community and we want to meet the needs of those who come to church.
“There are often a lot of elderly people in the congregation who come to church not only for the spiritual service but also for the social service — the camaraderie and the contact after the service. If they live alone it is often the only time they may get out.
“It’s a sense of providing for the needs of the community — they could stop and have a cup of tea after the service if they wanted.”
These services were previously provided in the nearby church hall, which had a toilet and kitchen, but increased running costs and the movement of some community groups to other, newer, facilities meant it was no longer sustainable to run and it was sold with planning permission to be converted to a small home.
The small extension of the brick-built church and internal alterations would allow these facilities, which planning documents say churchgoers ‘relied on’ to be incorporated into the church.
Mirroring a similar extension built in 2007, the single storey addition to the side of the tower would house a community room and would ‘retrieve the symmetrical form of the original Georgian Church’.
The existing extension, currently a vestry and store room, would be altered to house a fully accessible toilet and the small tea bar.
Other internal alterations would include the relocation of the font, removal of the organ, levelling of the church floor, a new oak frame main door bearing St Denis’ oriflamme, and removal of three pews to ensure accessibility throughout most of the church.
The application is to be decided by Newark and Sherwood District Council at a later date.
