Tag Archives: organ

Presentation by the CCT on future running of Sudbury Arts Centre

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On 14 April the CCT (or to give it its full name, the Churches Conservation Trust) gave a presentation to about 50 representatives of the town on the options for the future running of Sudbury Arts Centre (SAC). The CCT has been running Sudbury Arts Centre since April 2025, from early 2023 onwards they sub-contracted this out to the Bridge Project until the Bridge Project failed in March 2025.

The costs of the staff employed at SAC are currently covered by funding from the Lottery Heritage Fund and this funding ceases by the end of 2026. The CCT now needs to decide, with the agreement of the Heritage Lottery Fund, how SAC will be run once the funding ceases as clearly at this stage the costs of running SAC exceed the income it generates.

The CCT summarised the background to the renovation project and set out the reasons for the presentation and then put forward five options for running SAC of which two (carrying on with existing staffing or carry on with reduced staffing) were the preferred options. The other options were to outsource the running of SAC to a third party, running it as a village hall for hire with minimal staffing or closing the building were also shown in the presentation. All these options are the standard ones you would expect in the circumstances.

The CCT are in the early stages of the decision making process for the future running of SAC and they had not yet completed their financial forecasts for the two preferred options. As a result they were not able to give any indicative figures for the cost of running SAC or the income projections which was a shame as without this information it is difficult to evaluate the different options being presented or to discuss them in any meaningful way.

Whatever option for the future running of SAC is adopted this year the CCT has stated that they will run it for 2 to 3 years before reviewing it again. We understand that the CCT trustees will be meeting in June to make a decision on the particular option to be adopted.

At the end of the presentation there was a Q&A session which covered a wide range of subjects. We said we were committed to ensuring St Peter’s and SAC remained a community event space for the benefit of the Sudbury community as that was the basis for the renovation project to which many of those present, including ourselves, had given substantial funding. We also asked if the CCT had considered a more community based management structure with say volunteers to act as duty managers, assist in marketing and the like. This would reduce the cost of running the venue and so clearly help its future sustainability. The CCT did not respond to this. The representative from Babergh District Council asked for a budget for the venue, clearly anticipating they would be asked for provide grants at some future date for the running of the venue. The CCT did confirm during this part of the presentation that they were not considering leasing the venue to a religious group as say in St Mary at the Quay in Ipswich.

After a lot of other comments and a good few questions the meeting broke up.

Meetings with the Churches Conservation Trust – in 2026

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As of May 2026 we have had two of our regular meetings with the CCT and there was also a presentation by the CCT to various representatives of the town in April. This April meeting was about the various options available to the CCT in running Sudbury Arts Centre once the funding from the Lottery Fund ceases at the end of 2026. There is a separate post about this as it is clearly a very important topic which is here.

A summary of our regular meetings with the CCT since the start of 2026 is below.

The organ: the organ in St Peter’s is struggling at the moment with sets of pipes becoming inoperable due to long term damage, caused either through damp, temperature changes, sheer old-age or a combination of all three. The CCT does not take responsibililty for the organ, if we want it fixed we need to fund it (including finding funding) ourselves. As of May 2026 the CCT have recommended a firm to us to investigate the causes of issues with the organ and we will be taking this up.

The Bells: There may be a chance to ring all 10 bells from the mezzanine floor by judicious re-hanging of some of the bells. We look forward to more detail from the Suffolk Guild however this is taking more time to progress than we had hoped but we are still hopeful that it will happen at some stage in the future but we are talking years here.

Religious services in St Peter’s: the CCT has now confirmed that up to six services a year can take place in St Peter’s. Up to now it has been very difficult to get bookings for services in the building, this includes the St Peter’s Day service which traditionally always took place in St Peter’s and this year falls on June 29.

Lighting in St Peter’s: Good news, the CCT may well use the funding it has from the renovation project to replace the existing lights with LED ones. Not I am afraid ones that are all the colours of the rainbow (just plain white light) but at least the new lights should last longer than the existing ones.

Banners hanging from lamp-posts outside St Peter’s: We have been asked to fund replacement ones out of the orginal donation we gave the CCT to purchase equipment.

Installation of cleaners sink: Currently St Peter’s does not have a sink that the cleaners can use to dispose of dirty water, the ones in the kitchen are, as you would expect, purely for food related activities. We were asked to fund the installation of one but the CCT has in fact managed to find alternative funding so hopefully this will be going ahead soon.

Meetings with the Churches Conservation Trust – in 2025

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Since February 2025 we have a number of meetings with the Churches Conservation Trust (the CCT) to discuss a number of issues which included those set out below.

The organ: the organ in St Peter’s is struggling at the moment with sets of pipes becoming inoperable due to long term damage, caused either through damp, temperature changes, sheer old-age or a combination of all three. Short term fixes are being made where possible but overall the organ needs substantial repair works to be undertaken and this is likely to cost a substantial six figure sum. This will though give us the option of installing an electric console to replace the current keyboards which would have a number of advantages including increasing the variety of sounds that the organ can produce and being able to move the keyboard out of its current almost invisible cubby hole so that the player can actually see the audience or even the other musicians the organist is mkaing musi with.

We are now starting to look at fundraising for the organ repairs and also getting CCT approval for the major works required by the organ. Neither of which are exactly small tasks!

The Humidifier: there has been no resolution on this issues. We were initially advised that a humidifier was necessary to protect the organ from drying out but to date (December 2025) readings of a hygrometer have shown that the humidity in the building is not so high or so low that it would cause damage to the organ. The CCT has not been convinced of the necessity of the humidifier and so currently we are not looking to install one.

The Ringing Chamber: Plan B is now that there may be a chance to ring all 10 bells from the mezzanine floor by judicious re-hanging of some of the bells. We look forward to more detail from the Suffolk Guild however this is taking more time to progress than we had hoped but we are still hopeful that it will happen.

Community Bookings: the difficulties encountered by some community hirers in booking St Peter’s were raised by the Friends with the CCT when the Bridge Project were in place. The CCT were not prepared to intervene at that stage. These difficulties still persist even where the CCT is running St Peter’s directly. It is clear that the CCT does not consider itself in a position to take any action on this point so for now this issue is not being pursued by the Friends. Obviously we are hopeful that if there are changes in the management approach once the funding from the Lottery Fund runs out (currently likely to be in October 2026) that substantial improvements in this area can be made. Overall though a disappointing situation given all the promises given for the renovation project.