The Plymouth Brethren Christian Church has published a website — rainhillplace.co.uk — as part of a pre-application local consultation for a proposed development in Rainhill, St Helens, Merseyside. The site presents the proposal using the language of community benefit, charity, education and local investment.

This is an alternative view.

Our view is that the PBCC are cash rich — partly from their charitable status and partly from the award of Covid contracts to Hales family businesses — and that they have identified an opportunity to grow their asset base through this development. The UK PBCC has around 18,000 members in total. This is not a large Christian church. The consultation, in our assessment, is primarily a PR exercise in which the community engagement box is being ticked ahead of a formal application.

What the Development Would Actually Contain

The proposed Rainhill Place development consists of several distinct elements, each presented on the consultation website with community-focused language. Let us look at what each element would mean in practice.

Element Presented as In practice
Gospel Hall
A place of worship open to the wider community
Single storey, no windows, gated and fenced site. Non-members may arrange attendance via a phone number for the Chessington HQ — but not for the main Lord's Sunday service
RRT Storage
Charitable disaster relief facility
A warehouse and storeroom for Rapid Relief Team equipment
Campus & Co
Not-for-profit community store
Brethren members only. No access to the non-Brethren public. Staffed principally by unpaid female Brethren volunteers, as stated in the consultation FAQ
OneSchool Global
Educational facility with local employment opportunities
Brethren children only, bussed in daily by retired Brethren members from across the North West. Staff recruitment claims are accurate but turnover and ex-staff feedback tell a fuller story

"Community" — Whose Community?

A Key Distinction

When the Rainhill Place consultation refers to "community uses", it means the Brethren community — not the wider community of St Helens and Merseyside. These are not the same thing.

The Gospel Hall will have no windows and will sit behind a gated, fenced perimeter — the published plans confirm this. Attendees from outside the PBCC would need to arrange a visit by telephoning the brethren's national headquarters in Chessington, Surrey, and the service they would be invited to attend would not be the central Sunday service of the community.

The Campus & Co store, presented as a community not-for-profit, is exclusively for members of the PBCC. It will draw purchasing activity away from local businesses in St Helens, staffed by unpaid volunteers. If the Campus & Co network's recent closure is taken into account, the longevity of this element is also worth questioning.

The OneSchool Global school will serve Brethren children transported in from across the North West each day. Its contribution to local education or the local economy is limited by the nature of the school's intake. Staff and teaching assistant roles will be offered, but the experience of former employees of other OneSchool Global sites provides a more complete picture than the consultation materials.

The Language of the Consultation

The wording throughout the rainhillplace.co.uk consultation website is, in our view, carefully chosen to reduce potential objections. Terms like "community", "not-for-profit", "charity" and "education" carry their ordinary meanings for most readers. Applied to this development, they carry narrower and more specific meanings: Brethren community, Brethren not-for-profit, Brethren charity, Brethren education. The gap between the implied meaning and the actual meaning is, we think, significant.

"The language is chosen carefully. 'Community uses' means their community. 'Not-for-profit' means not for profit by non-members."

Brethren Exposed Editorial — September 2024

Planning Concerns

White elephant risk: We have seen evidence from other Brethren planning applications where, within a couple of years of a grant, a further application is submitted for a smaller site on the grounds that the original is too large or inconvenient for local members. Some larger Brethren meeting rooms have subsequently been converted to residential development. There is currently one such case in Rainham, Kent. We are concerned this pattern may apply here.
Planning spend vs charitable giving: Our estimate is that the UK PBCC is now spending more annually on planning applications and their associated legal, survey and consultancy costs than they direct to non-Brethren charities each year. The Rainhill Place development would add to that spend.
Growth claims: The consultation implies a growing local congregation justifying this scale of development. We would dispute that membership growth in the UK would justify the number of meeting room applications currently being submitted across the country.

An Alternative Use for the Site

Our View

There is considerably more potential to develop this site residentially, providing affordable housing for the people of Rainhill and the surrounding areas of St Helens. The land and its scale would support a meaningful contribution to local housing need. That, in our view, would represent a more genuine community benefit than the proposed development.

Disclaimer: This piece represents the editorial opinion of the author and does not allege wrongdoing by any individuals or organisations mentioned. The PBCC consultation website can be found at www.rainhillplace.co.uk. Originally published by Brethren Exposed, September 2024.