Plans unveiled for new community hall in Melton town centre

The building would be an annexe to the St John The Baptist Catholic Church, in Thorpe End, and it would also contain a parish office.

It would be built on the eastern side of the church and cover about half of the existing car park, taking out around six parking spaces.

There would be access provided for wheelchair users to the new hall and the church – the listed status currently makes it unviable to create a ramped access to the front entrance.

The new hall would provide a facility for church activities and celebrations and an on-site parish office – the current one is located in a separate rented building.

It will also be available for hire to the wider Melton Mowbray community. The town recently lost the nearby Sage Cross Methodist Church as a hall facility when it was closed in January and is now up for sale.

A report submitted with the planning application for the St John’s scheme states: “Not only would the proposed hall provide much-needed facilities and opportunities for the church and Catholic community, it would also be made available for use as a venue to the wider community for clubs, classes and other gatherings.

“The new building would also enable the parish to carry out their Christian mission to reach out into the wider community and provide support to those in need.”

The Church of Saint John the Baptist at Melton Mowbray is the only remaining element of a larger ecclesiastical complex built between 1839 and 1842.

The original site also included a church hall – which was formerly schoolroom – a house lived in by an order of nuns and a presbytery, with a churchyard to the north and west.

The presbytery, hall and southern boundary wall were demolished in the mid-1980s and the area, including the northern part of the church yard, was covered with tarmac for car parking. The presbytery had been demolished some decades earlier.

The planning application report says the proposed new hall would be sympathetic to the setting of the church.

It continues: “The introduction of the proposed building to the site re-establishes both the historic visual character and historic function of the historic building and its complex of accompanying buildings, enabling the building and the history of the Catholic community for whom it was built to be better understood.

“The proposals would support and strengthen the local Catholic community, thereby providing the building with a viable active use and, in-so-doing, protecting this historic building through its necessary regular maintenance.”

The first Catholic church built in the Melton area was at Eastwell in 1797 with St John’s in Melton Mowbray constructed shortly after the legal emancipation of Catholics.

Friends of St John’s fought a successful campaign five years ago to keep the Thorpe End church open – it was decided instead to close the town’s St Peter’s Catholic Church, on Welby Lane.