St Albans Consistory Court: Bursell Ch, December 2001
A faculty was granted for the construction of a meeting room with kitchen and lavatories as a self-contained building within the churchyard of a Grade II* listed building. Planning permission had been granted by the local authority but there was a significant body of objectors. The chancellor was of the opinion that the erection of the proposed building would adversely affect the character of the existing church building. He stressed the burden on the petitioners to shift the presumption against change in a case such as this. The law states that any such changes must be 'necessary' (as stated in Re St Luke the Evangelist, Maidstone [1995] Fam 1, [1995] 1 All ER 321, Ct of Arches). Whilst not being in entire agreement with the decision in Re St John the Evangelist, Blackheath (1998) 5 Ecc LJ 217, Southwark Cons Ct, he shared the opinion that 'necessity' is 'something less than essential, but more than merely desirable or convenient' and concluded that 'not only the pastoral well-being of the church but also … "outreach" to the community' could count as 'necessary' and thus rebut the presumption against change. The chancellor was clear in his judgment that the church has a duty to reach out to the community. '[S]uch outreach is more than merely desirable or convenient. In my judgment it is something that is requisite'. In this case the provision of lavatories, in particular (bearing in mind the provisions of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995) a lavatory to disabled standards and the provision of a suitable meeting room for a growing Sunday School and midweek activities for the very young and very old weighed in favour of the granting of a faculty. The nature of the building itself was such that these facilities could not satisfactorily be provided by any of the several alternative schemes were discussed during the hearing.
(2002) 6 Ecc LJ 415-416
