NEWS from the Church of England
PR22.07
08/03/07
For immediate release
Churches' own systems given vote of confidence in Heritage Protection White Paper
The Church of England and the Churches Main Committee have welcomed the Government’s White Paper on Heritage Protection for the 21st Century. The Paper gives a vote of confidence for the Churches' own systems set out in the current ecclesiastical exemption from listed building control and extends the exemption to cover churchyards and structures within them.
The Rt Revd Richard Chartres, Bishop of London and Chair of the Church Heritage Forum and the Cathedral and Church Buildings Divisional Group, said today,
"This White Paper proposes the greatest change in historic environment legislation for a generation. There is much to absorb in the detail but it is clear that the Churches' own systems have received a substantial vote of confidence from the Government. As a body responsible for the care of 45% of all the Grade I listed buildings in England and 80% of all the listed places of worship, the Church of England looks forward to playing its part in developing a system which is flexible and responsive to the needs of both congregations and the wider community."
The Rt Revd George Cassidy, Bishop of Southwell and Nottingham and Chairman of the Churches Main Committee, added:
"The denominations in England and Wales whose systems have already been accepted by Government as providing equivalent protection to secular control will welcome the continuing endorsement of these arrangements. The White Paper gives us the potential to develop those systems further in partnership, with a deepened mutual understanding of why our historic places of worship matter."
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For further information contact Arun Kataria at the Church of England Communications Office 0207 898 1326
Notes to editors
The White Paper aims to streamline the consent system and make it more flexible.
It proposes:
- A new system of unified ‘designation’ of historic assets, including places of worship, to replace listing and scheduling (and registration of parks and gardens).
- A new unified ‘historic asset consent’ to replace listed building consent and scheduled monument control
- A system of Heritage Partnership Agreements (voluntary but with statutory force) to deal with complex sites.
The White Paper says that for England:
- Churches and places of worship will continue to be designated for their historic/architectural/archaeological importance.
- The ‘ecclesiastical exemption’ will continue for those denominations which already have it.
- Register entries relating to ecclesiastical assets in use as places of worship, such as churches together with their attached churchyards and separately listed tombs, will be exempt from the new consent procedures.
- Other ecclesiastical assets will not attract the ‘exemption’, and it will not be extended beyond those denominations that already have the ‘exemption’.
- Ecclesiastical buildings will remain fully subject to planning control, as now.
- In advance of any legislation, the DCMS will work with the exempt denominations to agree the operation of the new system, on the understanding that denominational systems of control should provide similar levels of consultation to secular systems of control.
This widens the current operation of the ecclesiastical exemption arrangements by providing that churchyards and structures in them in use for ecclesiastical purposes will also be exempt from the new heritage consents, as well as the church building itself.
We understand the Department of Culture Media and Sport is aiming for a Bill in the 2008-9 Parliamentary session. The new legislation might then take effect in 2010/11.
Pilot projects on two cathedrals (Rochester and Canterbury) and one Church of England Diocese (Bath & Wells) have been in progress for some time, seeking to test how the Heritage Partnership Agreement concept could work in practice.
The Church of England, Church in Wales, Roman Catholic Church, Methodist Church, United Reformed Church and churches belonging to the Baptist Union are all exempt from the present listed building consent arrangements, as they operate their own systems of control which the Government accepts provide an equivalent level of protection. All other places of worship are subject to the listed building controls.
The White Paper applies to England and Wales. For Wales, it indicates that the exempt denominations should continue to enjoy the exemption from secular controls but it identified a number of areas where current arrangements could be improved, which will be pursued further with the denominations. The Government will also consider whether there is scope for the exemption to cover a wider range of assets, as is proposed for England, in consultation with the exempt denominations.
Under current legislation, ecclesiastical buildings in ecclesiastical use cannot be scheduled as ancient monuments, although they have been listed as listed buildings. The new legislation will provide for both churches and churchyards to be designated for their archaeological or historic importance, and for churchyards, as well as churches, to be covered in future solely by the exempt denominations’ systems, thus reducing the existing overlap of dual secular and ecclesiastical controls.
The White Paper can be read at:
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