Madam,

May I, as a trustee of the Diocese of Menevia, be permitted to correct the errors which have occurred in an article about St Winefride’s Church which was published on 26 May.

The facts are these. Despite an emotional campaign by a caucus of vociferous ‘parishioners’ who maintain that the church must be renovated at any cost, this simply will not happen.

St Winefride’s was built in 1874. Despite assertions that the church is a Victorian ‘gem’ and thereby must be preserved, it actually was of poor design and built to a very poor standard. CADW have refused to list it because of its poor architectural standard. Shortly after its completion, massive steel tie-rods were necessary to obviate the collapse of the main walls and the building has required the expenditure of many tens of thousands of pounds in repairs and maintenance over a considerable period of time. Currently, due to subsidence, part of the church was cordoned off and this plus other aspects inside the church led to the church insurers’ refusal to maintain insurance for the church on grounds of public safety. Hence the church has been closed for four years and the most optimistic estimates for its repair and that of the adjoining presbytery is well in excess of £650,000. Quite simply, this is a clapped-out old building which is way past its sell-by date.

That sum of money is totally unaffordable. The bishop and trustees of the Diocese of Menevia have decided that the land available at Penparcau where an existing church known as the Welsh Martyrs (now closed due to lack of use and cost of maintenance) should be re-developed to provide a new church for Aberystwyth with a new presbytery and parish hall. This would be funded by the sale of adjacent land for affordable housing but more importantly by the sale of the St Winefride’s site where it was envisaged suitable housing could be built .Unfortunately, those plans are in abeyance due to unintelligent actions of this group of ‘parishioners’ who wilfully fail to under-stand the reality of the financial costs of even attempting to repair the church to acceptable standards. Hence the bishop and trustees of the diocese have unanimously decided to take a secondary path by renovating the Welsh Martyrs’ Church at Penparcau to provide a proper church after a lapse of four years. Although the cost of this is quite high (£350,000) at least this will hopefully be completed by December of this year so that the parish of Aberystwyth can be restored to one central place. Then, and only then, will an objective, intelligent consideration be given to the best way to dispose of the St Winifrede’s site so that the ensuing finance will provide for the building of a new church etc at Penparcau with the objective that the present Welsh Martyr’s church will be converted into a parish resource centre and the needs of the parish will be complete for many years to come.

Yours etc

Adrian Murphy

Llangunnor

Carmarthen.