Access and Accessibility

St Michel’s has very limited, and very poorly laid out parking.  To support our plans to have the church used more often by more of the community, we need to improve parking.  As well as redesigning the existing car park, we plan to make a strip of land adjacent to the churchyard available for additional parking.

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But for visitors with significant mobility challenges, getting to the church is only part of the problem.  Getting into the church, in a wheelchair for example, or perhaps pushing a buggy, is very difficult. 

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Having looked at a number of options, we have decided to turn the West (rear) door into a fully accessible entrance.  To do this we will entail remodelling the West entrance. 

• We will remove the top step of that entrance, a step that was in fact a later addition.  This will allow us to landscape outside in such a way that reduces the height of the threshold.  

• We will instal a chair lift to one side of the entrance stairs, and so that wheelchairs can get into the building and manoeuvre onto the lift, we will extend the top step. 

• So that the entrance door can be left open when required but doesn’t leave the interior of the church exposed to the elements, we will install a glazed draft porch at this entrance. 

• The mechanism of the chair lift will be enclosed by joinery, and a storage cupboard of the same appearance will be built on the other side of the steps. 

That is quite a lot to take in, but hopefully the sketches below will give you a better idea of what it might look.  Take a wander up to the church and see if you can visualise it your self.