Church rebuild not the answer to resident prayers

Plans to rebuild a church have come under fire from people living nearby.

The proposal for King's Road Church in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, included a 240-seat auditorium and facilities for community groups.

Residents said Berkhamsted did not need more community services, and the new building would ruin the scenery and create extra traffic.

However, the church said its current building was not big enough or fit for purpose.

The original place of worship on King's Road was built in 1874 for the Plymouth Brethren.

It became the King's Road Evangelical Church in 1969, but church leaders said the building was now too small for its congregation, so worship takes place at a nearby school.

The church applied to erect a two-and-a-half-storey building that would include a creche, community rooms, a prayer room and a 240-seat auditorium.

It already runs a food bank and said the new building would enable it to expand its healthy eating programme and run youth programmes.

David Sanders, who lives next door, said other churches in the town were already "in advanced stages of providing multi-site food banks".

"We've got a great youth development centre about 50m from the proposed site," he added.

"It is not a need. It does not exist."

Mike Bromberg lives opposite and is worried the church would "completely dominate our view, and we will be cut off from the lovely evening light".

"The cafe that they're proposing will have big plate glass windows facing exactly opposite us," he said.

Mari Craig cannot see the church from her house around the corner, but she believes she would see its effects on the road that runs past her driveway.

She said traffic was "already at saturation point" with vehicles bumping up onto the pavement to get past.

She added: "There's an accident waiting to happen. As a mum of young children, I've got friends with young children, I see them walking up and down every day, and it worries me."

Sue Gorst, the church's community pastor, said: "Our building is bursting at the seams [and] is not fit for purpose."

She added that the church's foodbank offers a different kind of service to the one provided by other churches, as it has paid staff to support users.

The project architect, David Kirkland, said: "The building that is in the application is two-and-a-half storeys, and it's lower than the houses opposite."

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