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Ecclesiastical Case Reports
Re Dorchester Abbey
(Oxford Consistory Court: Bursell Ch, October 2002)
Re-ordering–disabled access–fees
A petition was sought to improve the access to this grade I listed building. The plans included the replacement of a Victorian draught lobby (designed by an architect in the practice of Sir George Gilbert Scott) and its replacement with a new, primarily glass lobby. The chancellor indicated that he would follow the approach to the law as laid down in Re St Gregory, Offchurch [2000] 4 All ER 378. He stated further that he did not entirely agree with the definition of necessity formulated by George Ch in Re St John the Evangelist, Blackheath [1998] 5 Ecc LJ 217 in that his use of reasonably in the phrase requisite or reasonably necessary failed to stress that a compelling reason needs to be shown before change can by sanctioned. In addressing the Disability Discrimination Act 1994 the chancellor found a possible conflict between this Act and the faculty jurisdiction where the value of a feature of a listed building sought to be removed or altered in pursuance of the 1994 Act is so great that it nonetheless ought to remain unaltered. In such a case, the chancellor stated that the court’s duty would be to rule that the presumption for its retention outweighs the argument for change based on disability discrimination. The Victorian Society proposed the alteration of the existing lobby by the addition of glass panels. The secretary to the DAC gave evidence, accepted by the chancellor, that the Victorian Society’s proposals would cater for wheelchair users but not for the visually impaired for whom the consequent sudden changes of light when moving through the entrance would cause a hazard. The chancellor found that the character of the abbey as a building of architectural or historic importance would be adversely affected by the proposals but that the necessity for change had been proved. The faculty was granted subject to a condition that the dismantled lobby be labelled and stored in the abbey.
[WA]
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