St Mary Redcliffe A Year at Redcliffe Magazine 2022

Development, buildings and fabric
a decrease in business and a reduction in
the value of investments and so be unable
to donate; visitor numbers might suffer due
to restrictions on international travel and a
reticence on the part of domestic audiences
to visit public spaces due to the threat of
infection. Accordingly, during the first and
second years of Covid, the project team and
funders recognised a need to pause, take a
step back and review these documents to
ensure that the informational foundations
of Project 450 remain strong. This has
meant playing a waiting game while the
impact of Covid has become more clear.
While the world has not yet returned to its
pre-Covid state we feel that it is now viable
to carry out the reviews. This process will
now take place this summer and will help
to inform the final stage of architectural
planning. Following a positive meeting
with the planning department in late 2020
and the submission of a planning pre-app
shortly afterwards, we have received helpful
advice from the planning department about
what the remaining architectural planning
work needs to cover. The two initial pieces
of work that have been requested by the
planners, and which are currently being
worked on by our architects Hall McNight,
are a Statement of Significance and an
Archaeological Review, which will pull
together work that has been carried out
during the life of the project and provide
updates where necessary. These two pieces
of work will provide a foundation for the last
stage of planning. Helpfully, the Planning
Manager who will have responsibility
for our assessing the church’s planning
application has committed to a process
of pre-application consultation, that will
involve the the planning department and
other statutory stakeholders, including
Historic England. This process should help
to ensure that the submitted scheme has the
best possible chance of receiving planning
permission in 2023.
Rhys Williams
Project 450 Officer
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