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Re St Luke, Charlton

Southwark Consistory Court: Petchey Ch, 29 April 2016 [2016] ECC Swk 10 Telecommunication equipment – PCC resolution – undertaking not to renew application

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 August 2016

Ruth Arlow*
Affiliation:
Chancellor of the Dioceses of Norwich and Salisbury
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Type
Case Notes
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical Law Society 2016 

In 2002 the Parochial Church Council (PCC) had rejected a proposal to install telecommunications equipment in the tower of this church and the incumbent had given an undertaking at that time not to renew those proposals. There was a dispute about whether that undertaking had been open-ended or was limited to the tenure of that incumbent. In 2015 the new incumbent, supported by the PCC, petitioned for a faculty to install telecommunications equipment. A number of individuals objected to the grant of the faculty on the basis, inter alia, of the previous undertaking. The chancellor held that the undertaking was a relevant consideration for the court but that 15 years had now passed and the PCC had changed its mind. In those circumstances it would only be in an exceptional case that the court would seek to go behind a PCC decision on the basis that it was unrepresentative or for some other reason flawed. The faculty was granted. [RA]