Stirling Council planners have conditionally approved the proposals for St Mark’s Church in Drip Road, which include extending and altering the existing church building and demolishing the existing hall building behind the site.

The hall will be replaced with a new multi-purpose hall and landscaped garden areas.

The proposed project brief includes the creation of new exterior design features; a new community break out space; a new sharing kitchen where people can cook and eat together; a new space for local groups to meet and for celebrations, events, and other observances of community life; and a new space for services to be provided “in a safe, welcoming environment that enables more people, and people who are harder to reach, to access them”.

In their decision, council planners said: “The proposed development will involve demolishing the existing church hall building to the rear of the site. This is part of the wider redevelopment of the site and is necessary to create the landscaped garden and extension to the main church.

“The plans offer a well-designed and landscaped proposal that seeks to monopolise the generous and open plot, improve the street scene and provide green space. All these attributes help contribute to an improvement in placemaking on the site and in the wider street scene and as such the proposed demolition is considered acceptable.

“The existing church will be extended to the east, south and west elevations. Whilst extensions to the principle elevation of buildings are not generally encouraged, in this case, it will provide a more active frontage with an associated in/out footpath.

“The addition of the extensions to both to east and west elevations, alongside the south, overall create a large extension to the main building. However, this seeks to provide the facilities necessary on-site, contained within one building.

“The proposed development achieves a well-balanced design respecting the existing features of the church whilst providing contemporary and functional spaces. The site being a generous corner plot also allows it to host this scale of development without it being intrusive in the wider street scene.

“The overall development has been subject to community consultation by the developer and the final proposal seeks to serve and benefit the community wants and needs, whilst also improving the site and wider street scene.”

In documents submitted with the application, agents for the church said: “St Mark’s is a vibrant, healthy, thriving congregation and enjoys a valued place in the community.

“Many of the people who regularly visit the church and participate in activities are not members of the congregation and have other faiths or no faith. Stirling St Mark’s Parish covers two communities – those of Raploch and Cornton to the North-west of Stirling city centre.

“One of the key messages that came from the community during the consultations was that Raploch was missing an open green space for community use and the land to the north of the site provides the perfect opportunity to create such a space that can be enjoyed by everyone.”