Coign Church, Woking

The Church had explored the option of relocating off site but no suitable sites had been found. They had looked at redeveloping the site and re-providing the church at the base of a residential tower, but the new church would have been compromised. SP&D helped bring clarity to the situation, coming up with a strategy that retained and expanded the church on site.

The developable area was constrained by the loss of residential dwellings to the rear. However, we made the case that the repeated temporary planning permissions that had been granted for the use of these dwellings as accommodation associated with the Church meant that they could no longer be considered as residential accommodation. We also showed that the lack of car parking on site was mitigated by the site’s sustainable location close to the town centre and numerous transport links and could take advantage of the numerous town centre car parks that were underused on Sunday mornings. This increased the developable area and unlocked the potential of the site.