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Ecclesiastical Case Reports
Re All Saints, Hordle
(Winchester Consistory Court: Clark Ch, December 2002)
Construction of new church hall–planning permission–contempt of court
The vicar and churchwardens petitioned for a faculty permitting the construction of a new church hall on part of the churchyard, funded in part by the sale of the land upon which the current church hall stood. Members of the public vigorously opposed the petition. The chancellor found that there was a real and genuine need for a church hall without which the mission of the church would be impaired, and therefore went on to consider the relevant factors using the balancing exercise propounded in Re St Michael and All Angels, Tettenhall Regis [1996] Fam 44, [1996] 2 WLR 385, [1996] 1 All ER 231. The objectors had urged the chancellor to ignore the decision of the New Forest District Council that had granted planning permission. The chancellor reviewed the authorities and held that a consistory court should assume that a planning decision made by a local planning authority was correct unless there was convincing evidence to the contrary. Having considered at length all objections raised, the chancellor granted the faculty.
The chancellor went on to state that a consistory court’s jurisdiction was established under section 6 of the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Measure 1963 and that under section 81 such court was effectively in the same position as any civil or criminal court. No media interview should be conducted with a witness before or during his evidence as it could amount to a contempt of court.
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