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Ecclesiastical Case Reports
Re St James, Birstwith
(Ripon and Leeds Consistory Court: Grenfell Ch, November 1999)
Floodlighting
A petition was sought for the installation of floodlighting to light the steeple and frontage of a Victorian church situated in the Nidderdale Moors Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. At a directions hearing, ten individual objectors were made parties opponent, the Archdeacon of Richmond was made a party, and the matter proceeded by written representations. It was contended that the expenditure was excessive and inappropriate. The capital costs were £8,000 of which £3,600 was to come from the Church Floodlighting Trust. The annual running costs were no more than £115. The objectors also raised environmental issues concerning light pollution and the effect on wildlife, about which there was little in the way of expert evidence. It was also contended that there had been insufficient and inadequate consultation and that the proposal did not further the mission of the church. The chancellor considered and rejected each of these objections and directed that a faculty might issue subject to the following: any necessary planning permission being obtained; the church being lit for no more than 120 days per year and not later than 11.30 pm save on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve; the PCC submitting proposals for a review and ecological audit; and the PCC complying with reasonable requests not to floodlight the church on occasions of particular astronomical significance.
[MH]
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