SANNOX CHURCH, HOPE STILL ALIVE ? AN APPEAL

John Inglis

A recent Banner article gave notice that HIFAR had withdrawn from loan negotiations with Triodos Bank over the  purchase of Sannox church in the face of  requirements that involved additional expense with no guarantee of success. The sale of the church, manse and Dundarroch is now under discussion with another purchaser. In the meantime, however, Triodos Bank have been both helpful and encouraging. They have visited the site, waived the need for a further survey and given advice about how the credibility of the loan application could be improved, something that HIFAR has been working on under the leadership of Margo Wheeler.
          The whole project involves renovating the church and Manse, upgrading Dundarroch and using the income from the  holiday–letting of Dundarroch and the rent from an Arran family in the manse to service the mortgage. A negotiable difficulty has arisen between the differing estimates of the bank and HIFAR over the extent of the realisable rental income, with the bank being understandably cautious, as they are obliged to be. This gap has begun to narrow with the welcome and unsolicited provision of £80,000 in a mixture of donation and interest- free loan. For the mortgage application to succeed the gap must be closed and, towards that end, HIFAR is appealing to anyone interested in the project to make a pledge of money in the form of either an interest-free loan or a donation.These pledges would be drawn on only in the event of the local community having a second chance to purchase. In the event of the community succeeding in purchasing the church all sorts of practical help and support would be needed.
         The purpose of all this is to ensure that the historically and architecturally important Sannox church is renovated and kept under community control, that the manse is made fit to house an Arran family and that Dundarroch makes a contribution to the  Arran tourist industry. The Corrie and Sannox village committee and HIFAR would seek to run the site under a small management committee with the church used for various functions and public access retained. Of course, as stated earlier, negotiations to purchase are under way with another party and these may succeed but, since plans for a religious retreat involve  building on the site, unlike the HIFAR project, they could incur planning difficulties which may be insurmountable. In this case the opportunity may revert to HIFAR as the United Reformed Church have indicated. A decision about thus is expected in June. This is why a viable mortgage application and business plan must be in place to take advantage of the opportunity should it arise and why community support is needed. Notice of support should be sent to  Margo  margowheeler@binternet.com .