A home for the community today and in the future

One of the ways we show love to our community is to share our building, Lovat Hall, as a venue for support, social connection and recreation, honouring the building’s legacy from its time as a council-run recreation centre when it first opened in 1973.  

Today Lovat Hall is the home to Newport Pagnell Baptist Church but we also continue to run it as a not-for-profit community centre and sports hall at the heart of the town, open to all. It is home to over 30 regular user groups, benefiting everyone from babies to the elderly, being visited by an average of more than 1,200 people a week.

Approximately 25% of the building’s use is by Newport Pagnell Baptist Church for Sunday services and smaller midweek church meetings, with 75% of its use for community activities. These include, amongst other things: baby clinics, parent and toddler groups, youth groups, blood donations services, badminton, table tennis, Zumba classes, craft workshops, lectures, children’s summer holiday clubs, charity fundraising events and tea dances for older generations.

The need for redevelopment

Our heavily used building is aging and in need of extensive repairs and modernisation to ensure that it can continue to be used and enjoyed. In addition, the need for affordable community space will only increase with the forthcoming completion of the MK East development of 5,000 new homes on our doorstep. To meet these challenges we established a Building Development Group (BDG) which has been considering all options, consulting with key stakeholders and developing plans for:  

  • essential improvements to the fabric of the building;

  • better designed and more flexible space;

  • increased space to alleviate pressures on room use; and

  • improved environmental sustainability.

Our journey so far

Due to the scale and cost of the project the BDG developed a multi-phase approach, for which full planning permission was previously granted. This originally consisted of four phases: the redevelopment of the 1940s-built section at the rear of the building; an extension off this to build a dedicated children’s space; addition of new meeting rooms above our existing offices and the redevelopment of the main hall.

During the pandemic progress on the project stalled whilst we focused on supporting our people and our community. Twice since the church has submitted identical reapplications but in both instances Milton Keynes City Council has requested withdrawal for different reasons. During this time the need to refurbish the hall became urgent, due to the need to address the leaking roof to ensure safety and to improve energy efficiency due to steep rises in energy costs, so we acquired planning permission for this element.

In summer 2024, thanks to the kind support of our church family and external funders, we were able to extensively refurbish our leaking and uninsulated main hall. We are delighted that this is now a weathertight, warm and welcoming space, with solar panels for sustainable energy.

In early 2025 we were also able to complete some additional energy efficiency improvements to the parts of the building housing the offices and rooms that wrap around our main hall.

We are now focused on addressing the redevelopment of the rear of the building. In response to fresh consultations with the council and feedback from local residents we are now applying for a two-storey redevelopment of the rear of the site without the additional extension which would have had a greater impact on the public green space behind the building.