3. The Rev Bruce Dingwall asked -

(a) Is it present policy that when a new site is purchased by the New Sites Committee for a new Vision 2001 Church, that all monies spent must be repaid by that Parish to the New Sites Committee?

(b) Is it true that in the case of the proposed new church at Hoxton Park in the Parish of Sadleir, that amount presently stands at $730,000?

(c) Will such debts hinder new churches from attaining full Parish status and full Synod representation?

(d) Who is responsible for the current policy and how can it be changed?

To which the President replied -

I am advised that the New Sites Ordinance 1982 created a rolling fund with an initial loan of $1 million from the Glebe Administration Board. Subsequently the Synod provided additional funds through the Appropriations Ordinance and from time to time Vision for Growth and its successor provided funds for the purchase of specific land.

The concept of the rolling fund was that the Property Trust would purchase a "green fields" site (say 3 acres) and would later sell off the portion not required for purposes of the parochial unit. The parochial unit would repay the original cost of the land retained so that the rolling fund could purchase other sites. The proceeds from the sale of the unused portion would be used for future land purchases also.

There has been little unused land to sell and consequently if parochial units do not repay their costs then the Synod will need to provide additional funds for future land purchases or the programme will wind down.

The answers to the questions are -

(a) Generally speaking, when a new site is purchased, the parochial unit must pay that proportion of the purchase price and costs which is equivalent to the area of the new site retained for the purposes of the parochial unit. No interest is payable and the amount payable does not increase as market values increase.

(b) The Hoxton Park site was acquired for about $766,000 including costs. If the Provisional Parish of Sadleir chooses to retain all 2.25 acres of the site then under the current policy it will be required to pay that amount.

(c) Not necessarily. In a recent case a loan facility was obtained by a Provisional Parish to extinguish the debt to the Property Trust and the Provisional Parish was able to become a Parish.

(d) The Property Trust is responsible for the current policy under the New Sites Ordinance 1982. A request may be made to the Property Trust to change the policy or an ordinance can be promoted to amend the New Sites Ordinance. However a consequence of changing this policy is likely to be that the size of the rolling fund will be reduced, thereby limiting the ability to buy "green fields" sites in future unless the Synod provides additional funding.