Progress at new Beacon Church centre 'going very well' as Whitchurch Men in Sheds offer help

The church was given the green light in 2020 to convert the former Argos and Store 21 buildings into the 'Watergate Centre', a new home for the Beacon to replace its former home in St John's Street.

Since then church members have officially moved into their new home, although church elder Dr Jamie Muir says there is still work to be done.

"It's going very well," he said.

"We're still ploughing on with what we can do.

"We're currently in the process of putting together a brochure to invite sponsors for some of the more expensive projects."

Dr Muir says he envisions the Watergate Centre being used as a centre for teaching as well as providing a home for some of the town's community groups, who have been displaced by the closure of other centres.

"We're hoping to put in a good catering kitchen in so we can teach some good cooking skills and perhaps open a community cafe to.

"We've offered space to the Men in Sheds, who are incredible.

"They're happy to have a space in the centre and being practical guys if they can do that they will be a big help.

"the Caldecott lot are also exhibiting in our window ahead of their festival next year.

"So it's all going well.

"Our youth have started meting there already, but I'm going to meet with Andy Haller to see if he wants to use the Watergate Centre for the North Shropshire Youth.

"And we've been meeting there for the last six to eight weeks as a church for socially distanced services.

Although the space is currently open for use, some projects require a large budget.

"Hopefully it'll be a very flexible space," added Dr Muir.

"The next big stage for us is producing this brochure to get the tens of thousands needed for the bigger projects.

"We cant use a lot of the space until we have a lot of the regulations in and we need a fair amount of money to put in some safety areas.

"But once its all ready it will be a fantastic area and things are progressing well."