Ambitious plans to expand a Raploch church and create a community hub atmosphere have been given the go-ahead.
Stirling Council planners have conditionally approved the proposals for St Mark’s Church in Drip Road, which include extending and altering the existing church building and demolishing the existing hall building behind the site.
The hall will be replaced with a new multi-purpose hall and landscaped garden areas.
The vision for the project is to transform the church and wider site into a building that “enhances the health and well-being of local people, providing a safe space for the community to gather, share time, meet, interact, and make new relationships”.
The proposed project brief includes: creation of new exterior design features; a new community break out space; new sharing kitchen where people can cook and eat together; a new space for local groups to meet and for celebrations, events, and other observances of community life; and a new space for services to be provided “in a safe, welcoming environment that enables more people, and people who are harder to reach, to access them”.
The council’s transport development team had raised an issue with lack of accessible parking being provided on the site, however the planners said the community felt there was sufficient available and accessible spaces could be created on Menzies Drive via a Traffic Regulation Order.
Bats were also found to be emerging from the northern part of the church hall with experts saying the building supported “a small non-maternity roost of common pipistrelles on a transient basis”. A licence will be needed to carry out the development but the survey also detailed several mitigation and compensation measures to ensure no bats are harmed during the work.
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In their decision, council planners said: “The proposed development will involve demolishing the existing church hall building to the rear of the site. This is part of the wider redevelopment of the site and is necessary to create the landscaped garden and extension to the main church.
“The plans offer a well-designed and landscaped proposal that seeks to monopolise the generous and open plot, improve the street scene and provide greenspace. All these attributes help contribute to an improvement in placemaking on the site and in the wider street scene and as such the proposed demolition is considered acceptable.
“The existing church will be extended to the east, south and west elevations. Whilst extensions to the principle elevation of buildings are not generally encouraged, in this case it will provide a more active frontage with associated in/out footpath.
“The addition of the extensions to both to east and west elevations, alongside the south, overall create a large extension to the main building. However, this seeks to provide the facilities necessary on site, contained within one building.
“The proposed development achieves a well-balanced design respecting the existing features of the church whilst providing contemporary and functional spaces. The site being a generous corner plot also allows it to host this scale of development without it being intrusive in the wider street scene.
“The overall development has been subject to community consultation by the developer and the final proposal seeks to serve and benefit the community wants and needs, whilst also improving the site and wider street scene.”
In documents submitted with the application, agents for the church said: “St Mark’s is a vibrant, healthy, thriving ongregation and enjoys a valued place in the community.
“Many of the people who regularly visit the church and participate in activities are not members of the congregation and have other faiths or no faith. Stirling St Mark’s Parish covers two communities – those of Raploch and Cornton to the North-West of Stirling city centre.
“One of the key messages that came from the community during the consultations was that Raploch was missing an open green space for community use and the land to the north of the site provides the perfect opportunity to create such a space that can be enjoyed by everyone.”
