Thursday, 06 February 2025

As you will be aware, an announcement was made by the Trust in mid December 2024 that we were unfortunately unable to host three events that were due to take place at Errogie Church over the festive period.  We would like to share with you a little more information on what led to that decision and where we are in rectifying the situation. 

In 2023, Phase 1 was carried out at Errogie Church.  This first step was to make the building windproof, watertight and fit for basic use.  Since the completion of these works in August 2023, the Lead Director, SFCT Board, staff and the project steering group have worked extremely hard to build up awareness of Errogie Church as a community facility, and we have been fortunate enough to be able to use the building for a number of small events, gatherings and meetings.

However, as the number and size of activities proposed for the building has grown, it has become apparent that more work needs to be done to ensure that the building and access are health and safety compliant for the level and nature of use.  The main concerns are focussed on capacity for the building (numbers of people that can safely use the premises versus numbers of fire doors and toilets) and accessibility (lack of provision for disabled users). 

A review was undertaken by the new Board, shortly after their first meeting in December, and a decision was taken that until these issues are resolved the building should not be used. 

The new Lead Director, Board and the new CEO are extremely keen to see all of these issues addressed so that community access can be restored to the building as soon as possible. As a priority, we have started the process of engaging a Health & Safety professional to carry out a full assessment of the works required to make the building compliant and the associated costs. 

A meeting of the Errogie Church Steering Group was convened on the 28th January 2025 by the Trust to address the issues raised as a result of the cancellation of events in December and to discuss and agree a way forward.  

At the meeting the community representatives expressed their agreement to the proposition put forward by the Trust to organise the full assessment of works required to make the building fully compliant for community use. This becomes Phase 1b as it is a precursor to Phase 2.  The costs required to complete the necessary work will be discussed with the group prior to work starting. The overwhelming view of the community representatives was that the outcome should be that the building is a community asset to be fully usable. The CEO agreed this would be the priority going forward. Once the compliance issues have been addressed and the building open for community activities, we can then work on a public entertainments license to enable a wider range of events to go ahead. 

It is important that the new CEO and Board engage with the community to rebuild trust and to ensure transparency with regards to how the Church will progress in the future. To this end, we will send a weekly status report to the Errogie Community and Culture Sub group for them to disseminate to the wider community. We will also ensure the status reports will be accessible though the Trust’s website. 

The Trust is aware how much distress the closing of Errogie has caused and for this we can only apologise. Please rest assured that it is a priority for us to have the Church open as soon as possible. 

2026

February (2 stories)

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