Brethren Exposed view on Rainhill Place: Planning Consultation

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Rainhill Place, St Helens - Planning Consultation

The Exclusive Plymouth Brethren have published a website as part of their local consultation, prior to submitting a planning application. This site can be found at www.rainhillplace.co.uk.

This is an alternative view by Brethren Exposed.

What we think about Rainhill Place, St Helens.

We think that the brethren are cash rich, partly from their charitable status and their members businesses being awarded Covid contracts and that they have seen an opportunity to grow their assets via this development.

We do not think they are a 'large or normal' Christian Church (they total just 18,000 members in the UK), and it is our view that this proposal will not be of any benefit to the folk of St Helens and Merseyside.

We think that they will have been doing their PR piece on the council and are now ticking the 'consultation' box.

We think that despite the marketing buzzwords and mention of 'charity, not-for-profit' descriptions, to most people, what they will see if this planning application is submitted and approved, is just a complex of warehouses, similar to an business or industrial park, one that is fenced off from the public. There will be no free access to the public or community use to the non-brethren public.

The single storey Gospel Hall (they are all single storey) will have no windows, the site will be fenced off and gated, similar to a prison (the published plans back this view up). There will be a sign with a phone number for a telephone line in brethren HQ, Chessington, Surrey, to arrange non-brethren attendance at a service. Even if granted, then it will not be their main Lords Sunday service.

The storage for the RRT will be a warehouse/storeroom.

The Campus & Co, not-for-profit store will be for the exclusive use of brethren members and this will takeaway from the local economy. It will be staffed mainly by unpaid female brethren 'volunteers' as it states in the FAQ's.

The OneSchool Global school if not approved will likely lead to brethren member businesses relocating to the site. If approved then the school will be brethren children only, they will be shipped in and out by mini buses each day from all over the North West (buses driven by usually retired brethren members).  The claim around teachers and assistants being recruited is we agree correct, however you just need to see the turnover of staff and the feedback from ex-teachers and assistants to gain a different view to the one pitched on the website.

When the brethren mention Community uses, it simply means their community not the wider community of St Helens. 

We also take an overall view that the wording used is in our opinion 'flowery' to reduce potential objections.

We are also concerned that the usage of this site will become another brethren "white elephant", that within a couple of years, a planning application will be submitted for a smaller site, stating this one is too big and not convenient for local members. We have seen evidence of this in a number of other meeting rooms planning applications. We have also seen larger brethren meeting rooms developed into residential developments. There is currently one in Rainham, Kent. 

It is our belief that over the last 2 years, that the UK brethren are likely spending more on planning applications and the connected costs, e.g. legal, surveys, etc. than they give to non-brethren charities each year.

Finally we believe that there is much more potential to develop this site residentially, providing affordable housing for the people in the surrounding areas.

What we think about the Exclusive Brethren

We think that the Exclusive Brethren are a 'sect/cult' driven by what we believe is the commercialism of a former more traditional if somewhat different Christian group. We believe this has escalated under their current leader Bruce Hales, with the support of a small group of loyal acolytes.

We view the awards of Ukraine and Covid contracts to the Hales family businesses, as evidence that they operate as 'disaster capitalists'. We do not believe that all their members are 'bad people'. 

Ex-members who have escaped, share horrific, heart-breaking stories and can be heard on various Facebook groups and Podcasts. The doctrine of separation destroys families and the separation from 'worldlie/non-brethren' people, sadly enables a system of coercion and brainwashing from birth.

We are concerned with the number of planning application being submitted across the UK, often with the claim that the congregation is growing, which we would dispute that the growth would come anywhere near the number of meeting rooms being built.
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We think for the Exclusive Brethren that "Charity starts at home", that is why in the UK, £51 million of the £53 million spent by their two big charities in 2023 stayed within the brethren community. We also see them providing 'disaster catering', which we believe is purely PR to safeguard their very profitable charitable status. They take plenty of photos and keep records of their 'charity' work. We think they do more of this in areas in the lead up to a potential planning application.

Consider that the Rapid Relief Team are prolific in capturing the events they attend and are highly visible on social media platforms. Yet, there own members and volunteers are prevented from using the same social media. Why promote their work on Social Media but not allow their members to use Social Media?
​(They can use LinkedIn).

​This is the view of Brethren Exposed and at no point do we suggest any wrongdoing by anyone related to the brethren.   ​