Minutes of old Church Restoration Group Bankfoot,
Thursday 17 January 2019 at 7.30pm
Present – CP, BC, IS, CA, SR
Apologies – AS, WH, CB, AI, SL, LN
Neil Paige from Church of Scotland wants a meeting to discuss progress. CP is to invite him, Raymond Young and Adrian Lough along to the next meeting.
I S provided drawings and reports that the building is still in a stable and vertical condition.
We got a report from the architect which based its findings on the report from the Church of Scotland. BC got his company Millard Consulting to do a Structural Engineers Report free of charge. This report shows the building to be in a better state than was initially thought. AS has offered to contact the Architects again to see what impacts this will have on their report.
BC is to contact Billy Trail, the Stonemason to get a revised price following Millard Consulting’s report.
BC is to contact Steve Bell to get a quote for an internal staircase for the tower.
I S suggested that we keep note of the free of charge works we are getting and the numbers of professional volunteer hours and services we are getting at the moment in case the we need to provide proof for like for like funding that we may be able to apply for in the future.
CP is to arrange a feasibility report/study to show that we have the interest and capacity to restore and sustain the tower in the future. How to get trustees? We need to get advice on Insurance for liability should anything go wrong.
CP also reported that he had had a meeting with Historic Environment Scotland and they stated that we would need to show we could provide funds to sustain the tower in the future before we got funding from them.
CP showed some pictures of other Church Towers that had been restored. The most like ours would be the Church Tower at Cardross by Helensburgh that had been bombed in the war. It would be an idea to contact them to see what their running costs would be.
It was suggested that as Balfour Beatty will be in residence for the next 2 years with the A9 upgrade and they may have a community fund that we can apply for funds from.
It has also been noted that a local landowner might be interested in donating to this project but needs more details.
CP is to contact the representative of the Atholl Estate to see if they would be interested in sponsoring anything. The Tower was a gift from the Duke of Atholl at the start of the 20th Century and added to the original Church Building structure built in 1757.
The minutes of the meetings are to be documented and circulated. They are also to put them up on the notice board outside the shop to let everyone know what is happening and to see if we can get new volunteers. A number of initial volunteers have resigned due to ill health, moving away and not having sufficient time to spare. Anyone who is interested is welcome along to the next meeting or to contact CP for more information.
The next meeting is to be on Monday 18th February, 7.30 at the Church Centre.
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Bankfoot Church Centre 