I attend a church in Worthing that is currently looking to move in to a warehouse in an industrial estate in Worthing.  We were asked to write letters of support to the council and our local councillors to encourage them that this would be a good thing for the community.  Below is my letter that I wrote in support of the planning application.

I am writing to support the proposal of Jubilee Church’s change of use request. It is my understanding that there has been some opposition to the change of use and I would like to state my own reasons for why it would be good for the community on a local level and for Worthing on a wider level.  I have attended Jubilee Church for ten years and thus have some insight on Jubilee Church’s intentions for the use of this particular site.

Jubilee Church’s positive impact on the local level

According to the latest published figures of the West Sussex Annual Public Health Report 2011, it has been stated that almost 40% of children living in Northbrook and Broadwater live in a low-income environment.  One of Jubilee Church’s main ventures in Worthing is to provide numerous activities for the youth and provide opportunities to learn and develop specific skills.

For now, Jubilee Church hosts many events for the church youth throughout the year.  We have a strong youth leadership team who host regular meetings in rented community buildings.  For this we mainly use the Glynn Owen Centre in South Farm Road and are grateful for the continued use of this facility.  However, with a permanent building to make our own, we can do so much more.  We won’t be limited in time or clashes with other events.

Also with a permanent building we can provide skills training that we could not offer elsewhere.  With my skills in IT and the fact that I am a leader of the 12-16’s youth group, I have been asked if I would like to provide IT training to youngsters in the area.  We would use the IT facilities at the proposed site to host this.  The IT training that would be provided could be quite broad in respect of all IT areas: word processing, spread sheets, staying safe on the internet, writing CVs, and even designing their own web page for themselves.

With the church’s vision and optimism, I am confident that should the church be granted this change of use, we would be able to provide the above to the youth of the surrounding areas and encourage them to use their own skills and merits for the benefit of themselves and of their own community.

The addition of the all-day café and a small food service would be welcomed by the workers in the surrounding area to have a bite to eat and relax from their normal working environment.  They could also use Jubilee Church’s facilities to host business meetings which they themselves don’t have the ability to host on their own.  The presence of a popular, open and relaxing environment in the estate would benefit other businesses in the local vicinity.

Jubilee Church’s involvement in the community of Worthing

Jubilee Church provides the poor and disadvantaged people of Worthing with hand-outs from the Food Bank.  Over 8 tonnes of food has been collected from supermarkets in Worthing by the generous shoppers and this has been shared to hundreds of people who are struck by a short-term crisis of poverty.

“In 2010, the Worthing Food Bank fed 1,034 people a 3 day food supply, that is 9,216 meals.”
- Worthing Food Bank, News and Events

Food Bank is managed by the members of Jubilee Church in partnership with the Salvation Army. With a permanent building, our presence in the community would strengthen and we could provide more to the needy than ever before.

At Christmas it is traditional that local Worthing churches host their own Christmas services that are very popular among the population of Worthing.  With a permanent building, we could invite the community of East Worthing to come celebrate with us more intimately than ever before.  What is stopping us from hosting our own Christmas meal for those in the community?  To a lot of people, Christmas is their only opportunity to experience church and I feel that if we give them the best experience we can, we can change their outlook on church as a whole and breakdown misconceptions that a church is a lonely place to visit.  I hope you agree that the surrounding areas would greatly benefit from a giving, loving church that first and foremost wants to care for our community, not only at Christmas but all throughout the year.

The loss of a potential space for industrial use

After writing about what benefits this change of use will bring, it would be narrow-minded to not comment on the apparent loss of working industrial space in the estate.  I can imagine that you might think that changing the use of this building in the middle of a business estate would make it stick out like a sore thumb; the only building in the neighbourhood that doesn’t have industrial status.  However I would like to voice that it is only half of the building that will be used for the above activities.  The rest of the building is still used as an industrial business and will continue to function as such even should this change of use be granted.

It also shouldn’t be expected that the building would be void of people throughout the week.  Church is not just a Sunday event; we are a body of people that will use this building on a daily basis and it will provide to us so much value.  With the addition of the café I expect the new building to be busy and bustling throughout the week by local business men and women.

This building has been empty for years before Jubilee Church made the purchase.  Many other industrial buildings are available in the immediate area too.  If the change of use is granted, it would show to other businesses that this area is desirable and there is the opportunity for development.  Hopefully because of this, it would encourage other businesses that buying or renting on this estate is a good idea.  Buildings that are empty and unused reduce the desirability of the surrounding area.

My own personal involvement

I personally have agreed that I would be involved in interacting with the youth in the surrounding area and hosting youth events. I would also be happy to teach IT skills, including writing CVs, to the local people or youth in close proximity to the new building.

Thanks very much for your time reading this.  I hope this has encouraged you to grant the change of use for Jubilee Church’s new building and I look forward to hearing your decision.