CHURCH PLANS DIVIDE OPINION
A plan to demolish and rebuild Oban Baptist Church on Albany Street to create more space for its growing congregation is dividing opinion.
The plans to erect a new church and community building, submitted by Oban Baptist Church to Argyll and Bute Council, have so far attracted five objections and two supporters.
A supporter said the building can no longer cope: “The church is full to capacity, and beyond, frequently. Sunday services have been held in the high school since November, which is expensive, difficult, inconvenient and time-consuming.
“The lack of facilities and those facilities being sub-standard at best are increasingly becoming problematic. There is no easily accessed facilities for the infirm or disabled (and no space to resolve this). The building is cold, draughty, damp and very expensive to heat. The carbon footprint leaves much to be desired due to the age and nature of the building. More often than not the church is unable to host major life events normally expected of a church, such as funerals, weddings and baptisms due to the size and facility restrictions. “The church has spent seven or eight years to come to the conclusion a new building is the only solution if the congregation want to continue to gather on this site.”
An objector argued: “While sympathetic to the Baptist Church’s intention to increase their capacity and services to the community, I would urge that these worthy intentions are not done so at the expense of demolishing this historic building.
“The church building dates back to 1903, and was designed by prominent architect Alexander Shairp. Other fine examples of his work include
Oban’s municipal building, the parish church, the Argyllshire Gathering Hall, The Oban Times building on the Esplanade and the former Marine Hotel.
“We have lost many other heritage buildings in Oban, including the Victorian railway station and the old high school building (also designed by Shairp) and it would seem a travesty for the historic Baptist church building to be demolished.
“Instead the church could be renovated and expanded sympathetically to retain the historic structure, which has been a cornerstone of the community for more than a 100 years.”
The plan was discussed at Oban Community Council on Monday May 29, and members are yet to come to a consensus.
Community councillor Stewart McIver said: “The Baptist Church is probably one of the only churches within the Oban area which is actually bursting at the seams. The Church of Scotland is now looking to cull about 300 buildings within Scotland. I know there are people that are upset about an old building being flattened. I can’t see that there is an alternative if they want to extend the church.”
Convener Frank Roberts said: “I think the ability for this congregation to continue to increase should not be inhibited.”
Oban Baptist Church’s minister Stuart Lawson said the plans would demolish all three buildings on the site: the church, bungalow and hall.
“The main reason the whole congregation opted for a complete redevelopment was actually the footprint of the building. Because it’s so centrally located, it placed enormous restriction on what could be achieved. We have 75 chairs maximum in that space. We have a congregation if everyone comes on a Sunday of well over 100.
“The challenge we had was making a space that would give us enough breakout rooms, not just for our growing children and youth ministries, but also the community groups that are using it through the week, and also having a bigger sanctuary space for our church services.”
The church’s mission champion Mary Black said: “In no way could we accommodate what we want to do in the building that we have now. It is very damp and it requires a lot of heating, which is quite an expense.
“We just trust and pray that it will go through and that we’ll have a lovely new building that can accommodate the local people as well as the church folk. What you’re going to have is equally as nice and it will really enhance Oban.”
A member of the public said: “Completely demolishing a building is always going to have a bigger carbon footprint than building a new building, even though it will be much better insulated.”
Another said: “I do think that we need to put our ideas of that aside and look at how we consider our cultural heritage and how we value it.
“How long do we now expect our modern building to last? Oban Baptist Church stood the test of time for over 100 years and we’re looking at buildings in Oban that are demolished after 30 years.
“There are a lot of people that feel very strongly about demolition. It’s a drastic approach to take and I’m very sorry this is something that is divisive.”