Sheffield Consistory Court: McClean Ch, August 2001
The petitioners sought a faculty for the erection of a headstone with full kerbs on the grave of their son. The application was opposed by the PCC although the DAC gave a neutral certificate of no objection. The priest-in-charge supported the petition. The Diocesan Churchyard Rules do not permit kerbstones except in parts of the churchyard where kerbstones are already common and their introduction would have no adverse effect on the maintenance of the churchyard. Kerbs had been refused in the churchyard in question since 1986 because they made difficult the removal of leaves in Autumn. In granting the faculty the chancellor noted that some of the graves adjacent to that in question had kerbstones and the effect on maintenance would be marginal. The matter was one that fell within his discretion and there were considerations of a pastoral nature namely some confusion in the settling of the site for the grave that led to an exercise of this discretion in the petitioners' favour.
(2002) 6 Ecc LJ 291
