Trafford

Crucially, this time, the church, housing association, and wider community would all benefit.

Summary

‘Not another one’ was the reaction of the Parochial Church Council of St Bride’s, Trafford, when they found out that they may have to embark on building a new church. Just a couple of decades before, their Victorian building had been condemned, and they’d had to scrape together funds for a new building. Now Trafford Housing Trust (THT) had plans for their land, and they’d offered to build them another new church.

This time would be different, though. The church wouldn’t have to manage the development alone. It also wouldn’t cost them, as their new building would be provided free-of-charge in exchange for their land. Crucially, this time, the church, housing association, and wider community would all benefit.

Trafford Housing Trust

The plan wouldn’t have worked without the church moving. THT had access to two pieces of land with the church in between. On their own, these pieces of land wouldn’t have delivered many homes. By building a new church building on one side, THT’s Limelight centre – eighty-one extra-care apartments for over 55s, and a new, expanded community centre – could be built on the rest of the land.

The idea was to give a ‘heart’ to Old Trafford. Previously, it had had no real centre, and no cafés. Now, with a library, café, and five businesses in one building, people bump into one another, and find out about community events. Eleven of the apartments are for shared ownership, while the other seventy are for rent at 80% of market rents. As a person’s needs change, they can increase the level of care that they receive.

When THT announced that they had funding to build a new centre, they worked with the community to address their concerns. They found that health and wellbeing were major problems in the area, because the cost of getting to the nearest health facilities was prohibitive. Because of this, the new centre is home to a large GP surgery, pharmacy, opticians, hairdressers and nursery.

As a person’s needs change, they can increase the level of care that they receive.

St Bride’s

St Bride’s has also done very well out of it. Their old premises were awkward. They were using their twenty-five-year-old church building and rickety three-story Victorian manse to host their activities, while the modern manse housed the Rector. Although their new building provides equivalent facilities, it meets modern standards, including a lift and an upgraded kitchen, all within one building. Although there have been compromises such as a smaller church garden, the process has allowed them to design the space to suit their needs. They also have upgraded AV systems and a new kitchen, along with bigger rooms. The continued relationship with THT helps them – Limelight now hosts the church’s knitting club.

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