Methodist Church put Nesting Chapel on market
The possibility of a community purchase of the Nesting Methodist Chapel has come to an end following the Methodist Church’s decision to put the Chapel on the market.
Conversations between the Church and the Community Development Company of Nesting (CDCN) before the pandemic initially explored the possible shared use of the building for a weekday child care facility and Sunday worship space, but did not result in a viable proposition. In mid-2022 the Church confirmed with CDCN that it would be looking to sell the property. Since then, with the agreement of the Church, CDCN had been exploring options for keeping the building available for community benefit, before identifying social housing as the most feasible option.
In September 2022, CDCN facilitated an ‘invitation for ideas’ campaign in the Nesting area with the Church’s approval to identify options for keeping the Chapel for a community use. A total of 14 responses came back, including ideas for social housing, childcare, café/ community fridge, soft play centre, dentist, social location for retired people, workshop/ repair centre and others.
CDCN directors then assessed each of these ideas in terms of financial sustainability, approximate costs of renovation and maintenance, perceived community demand, avoidance of duplication of services/ facilities, and perceived long-term benefit to the community.
Following this, social housing was identified as the one option which CDCN would be interested in investigating further. CDCN therefore held a meeting with a local entity to better understand the local demands for social housing, and also enquired with the Scottish Government’s Islands Housing Fund to identify available grants to undertake a feasibility study on this. However, CDCN were only looking to proceed with this if no other group(s) came forward to pursue any of the other identified options for the Chapel.
CDCN then received approval from the Church to hold a drop-in ‘presentation of ideas’ event at the Nesting Methodist Chapel in early May, primarily to encourage other group(s) to consider bringing any of the other ideas forward. However, there was a low turnout for the event and no groups voiced interest in doing so. Subsequently, CDCN enquired with the Methodist Church as to whether it would allow CDCN further time to seek funding for the feasibility study into social housing, and the time to undertake the study.
The Church considered this enquiry and the feedback from the drop-in consultation at meetings of its local leadership team and property team. They concluded that they could not put off the sale for the length of time that would be needed for this further preparatory work, particularly given their ongoing need to secure funds for the work of the Methodist Church across Shetland.
Rev. Dr. Andrew Fox of the Methodist Church said: “We are appreciative of the work that the CDCN have put into trying to secure a viable community use for the premises, and we are not without hope that a purchaser may make use of the property in that way.”
Mark Ratter, CDCN development officer said: “A key part of CDCN’s mission is to explore possibilities for buildings used by the public in the area to be retained to continue benefitting the community. As such, CDCN had intended to explore options for converting the Chapel into social housing. We do however understand the church’s stance and reasons for deciding to move forward with the sale and we would like to thank the Church for having allowed us the time to look at community options for the Chapel”.
Details of the property sale can be found here: https://www.estateagencyshetland.co.uk/properties/former-methodist-chapel
