Penarth Methodist Church

Penarth Methodist church is a significant community resource for the town providing meeting spaces for a multitude of different community groups whilst also directly providing a community café and day centre. In 2023 the church embarked upon a major project which would both improve the energy efficiency of the community premises while also improving access to those spaces for people with mobility difficulties.

This project involved replacing an ageing leaky flat roof to the day centre, improving disabled access to the community facilities by installing new automatic opening doors to the main entrance and automating 4 existing internal doors, and reducing energy consumption and costs by a series of thermal efficiency measures and installation of solar panels and battery. The aim was to improve the financial viability of the community church and to ameliorate increases in rental charges for community users of the building by reducing the costs of running the premises.

Due to the generosity of the James Pantyfedwen Foundation and several other grant-making bodies, the church was able to secure the funds necessary to undertake this project. There is now a Day Centre, a café area which has a new secure roof complete with a solar PV array and battery. They have inserted improved thermal insulation, provided destratification fans in the larger areas to keep warm air down towards floor level, changed lighting to that which is more energy efficient and replaced external and some internal access with automatically opening doors.

According to a church Trustee, “we are delighted with these improvements. Not all of the changes are visible to the naked eye, but users comment favourably upon the improved warmth of the meeting spaces and many (particularly older people with mobility difficulties and younger mothers with unwieldy prams & buggies) tell us that these community spaces are now much easier to access. We reiterate our thanks for your generous grant contribution