News from Sacred Heart Church

Confidence is high at the Sacred Heart R.C. parish, Waterlooville that a start will be made later this year on building its new church and parish centre. When they are completed next year, parishioners will move from the convent chapel, which they have used since 1923, into the new £2.9m. complex positioned next to the London Road.

Tenders were invited recently and a builder is to be appointed in a month or so. Havant planners insisted that the new church must be a landmark building close to the main road and the result is an ultra-modern design by experienced church architect Columba Cook.

A vigorous fund-raising campaign is under way, led by professional fund-raisers, and the parish building committee has just pruned £500,000 off the budget. St. Michael’s Convent and grounds, owned by the Sisters of Charity, are being sold for redevelopment. A local builder bought the first plot and is now erecting houses and flats where the priest’s house used to be. The presbytery is now located in Stakes Hill Road.