04/02/2024
Long Post Alert!!
Firstly, an apology to everyone who has got in contact with us through Facebook, email or by phone and not received a reply. We simply haven't had anything positive to report, so thought it best to stay quiet. This has gone on too long now and you all deserve to know what's happening to the former St. Andrew's Church in Lochgelly and to the idea of bringing a community-based climbing facility to Fife for the benefit of all. So, here’s the story so far, warts and all...
Rockgelly was created in 2014 as a non-profit organisation with the sole purpose of bringing the empty St. Andrew's Church back to life by building an indoor climbing wall, café and play facility, then to use any profits generated to support disadvantaged people locally. Nearly 10 years later, our ethos remains the same. Fife Council (who own the building) got central government funding for necessary renovation work and in 2019 managed to secure additional funding to add a tower extension to make it suitable for use as an indoor climbing centre large enough to be self-sustaining. In the meantime, Rockgelly managed to raise £360,000 from several sources to complete the internal fit-out and all the remaining works straight after the completion of the extension. So far, so good.
And then COVID…
The builders were on-site for less than 24 hours before the first lockdown was announced and everything stopped. Although this should just have meant a simple delay, after the lockdowns lifted, the prices for everything started to rise sharply meaning we had to find additional funding. It takes months to apply for funding, so by the time we were done, the prices had risen again and the funding wasn’t enough anymore. We’ve been locked in this cycle ever since. To make matters worse, in order to provide security for a loan to fill the funding gap, we had to take on the lease of the church sooner than we wanted, resulting in bills of thousands of pounds to utility companies and creating an even bigger gap between the funds we’d been awarded and the costs to complete the project and open to the public. Rightly or wrongly, we decided the best strategy was to hand the building back to the council and wait out the cost-of-living crisis (it couldn’t go on forever, could it?) then restart the project once everything had settled down.
So, what now? Prices are still rising; inflation is still high and charitable funding is harder to get than ever as every non-profit finds themselves in dire need. In Lochgelly, the Townhall is falling down and all the crucial services based there need a new home, so it has been suggested that St. Andrew’s Church could be that home. While this sounds good in theory and we would love to be part of a big community hub, it would mean sacrificing the bouldering area of Rockgelly to make room and we would only have the roped-climbing tower available. As bouldering is far more accessible to new climbers, far more popular than roped-climbing and is a crucial part of the plans for Rockgelly, this is simply too big of a sacrifice and would leave us with an unsustainable business model, reliant on volunteers and donations to stay open.
The decision now lies with Fife Council. If they decide that there’s no other option for the Townhall-based organisations and that they have to have the church in order to continue their vital work, then we will regretfully step aside and wind up Rockgelly to make way for them. However, if the council decides that the community benefits of Rockgelly are worth supporting and there is a suitable alternative for the Townhall-based organisations, then we stand ready to make it happen. The plans are in place, all we need is to fill the funding gap and to be guaranteed the long-term lease of the building.
Fingers crossed, Thom & the Rockgelly team.
